Publié: 22 juin 2026, 15:50 CEST
University of the Western Cape graduates.
Postgraduate education is good for a country. Thriving economies need people with advanced academic degrees to enhance research productivity. Research and innovation capability have a positive impact on the competitiveness of a country.
The South African government has developed an extensive financial support programme for undergraduate (first degree) education in the form of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). However, this doesn’t extend to postgraduate programmes. Postgraduate education therefore remains a luxury for many students, even though the National Development Plan aims to have over 25% of university enrolments at postgraduate level by 2030.
As academics in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of the Western Cape, we examined the impact of students receiving financial aid for postgraduate study. The students in our research were new postgraduate students who registered at the faculty in 2019 (the last normal academic year before COVID-19).
