Funding

SciSTIP offers annual part-time and full-time scholarships for M.Phil and PhD students in Science and Technology Studies in an effort to build the capacity of current and future generation scholars in this field at an accelerated pace.

Applications for student and post-doctoral support are assessed by the Director and relevant academic and support staff for academic merit, fit to SciSTIP’s research strategy, the overall balance of work across disciplines, and supervisory capacity. On these grounds, decisions are made and applicants are informed of the outcome. Other funding and support pathways (e.g. research project-related funding) have also been used to sustain an average annual intake of 10 new students every year from South Africa, other African countries and further afield.

Students can apply for full-time M.Phil and PhD scholarships via the NRF online system. In addition, students can apply for travel and other financial support, e.g. fieldwork, transcriptions of interviews and language editing of theses.

The NRF minimum academic requirement for postgraduate funding is 65%. The entry age requirement is 30 and 32 years or younger for master’s and doctoral studies respectively, in the year of application, regardless of first year of registration. Successful applicants will be funded either at Full Cost Study (FCS) or Partial Cost of Study (PCS). The FCS funding will be awarded to South African citizens and Permanent Residents only, who are either financially needy (i.e., those whose combined household family income is less or equal to R350 000 per annum), living with a disability or exceptional academic achievers. However, the PCS funding will be awarded to 5% of international students including South African citizens and Permanent Residents who could not be funded under FCS but meet other minimum requirements for the NRF scholarship funding criteria.

17 June 2021: First-time Masters Scholarships

1 July 2021: First-time Doctoral Scholarships

Contact Rozelle Petersen (Postgraduate Funding, Division for Research Development) for more information.