Grants and Writing Resources for the University of Cape Town

Twenty-five UCT students joined the Mandela Rhodes Foundation scholarship programme in 2026, in a continent-wide cohort of 40. That is the largest group from the university in the foundation's history. Two UCT graduates were also named 2026 Rhodes Scholars, both with research interests in physics.

Postgraduate Funding

The Postgraduate Funding Office in the Otto Beit Building on Upper Campus handles postgraduate bursaries and donor awards, NRF awards, and the PG Research Scholarships, formerly called Departmental Scholarships. Each stream has its own contact address. Questions about any of them start there.

Conference and Research Travel

Second- and third-year doctoral students presenting their research at a conference can apply for the Max and Lillie Sonnenberg Doctoral Conference Travel Grant, worth up to R10,000 for local and SADC conferences and up to R32,000 for international ones, toward travel, registration, and subsistence. It's open to young South African and Zimbabwean researchers, and applications go through the PeopleSoft Student Portal. A travel report is due afterwards. The same page lists a Scholarship for International Travel for senior master's and doctoral students who need two to ten months at another institution for research that can't be done at UCT.

Writing Consultations

The Writing Centre, part of the Language Development Group in CHED, gives one-on-one consultations to students in every discipline and at every level. Consultants work on argument, structure, referencing, proposal formats, report writing, and poster design. Booking is online. Postgraduates drop off up to 15 pages before a session, as the consultation guidelines explain. Health Sciences students and staff have their own Faculty of Health Sciences Writing Lab at Groote Schuur, free to UCT staff and students, with individual, small-group, and online consultations.

Dissertation Support

CHED's postgraduate support meets PhD students at critical points in the degree. First-year doctoral students can attend Starting the PhD Journey, an all-day workshop on UCT resources. Second-year PhD students are invited to the Doctoral Breakaway, an annual residential retreat that brings postgraduates together across disciplines. Near the end, the Time to Submit workshop covers the final stages of writing and life after the degree, including publishing and postdoctoral opportunities.

Where Theses Are Published

Master's and doctoral theses go into OpenUCT, the open access repository UCT Libraries launched in 2014, alongside journal articles and research reports; the library's Theses & Dissertations page links straight to the collection. Honours theses stay with their departments. For journal articles, the Open Access Journal Publication Fund pays article processing charges of up to R20,000 per article in accredited open access journals, and when a student is the corresponding author the supervisor applies.

If you'd like an editor's eye on a thesis chapter or a research paper before it goes out, we can help. See our University of Cape Town dissertation and thesis editing page, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.