Postgrad bursaries plummet by 3,000 in South Africa

Budget cuts and policy shift blamed for sharp drop

South Africa’s National Research Foundation has revealed that this year it will fund nearly 3,000 fewer postgraduate bursaries than last year, with further drops forecast.

Gansen Pillay, who heads research and innovation support at the NRF, ascribed the fall to “current fiscal constraints”, combined with the NRF’s policy of cutting the number of new bursaries to fund fewer students better.