Funding at a Crossroads: NRF 2026 Calls Amidst GNU Policy Tensions

The National Research Foundation (NRF) has officially opened the DSTI-NRF Postgraduate Student Funding for the 2026 academic year, maintaining its strict 65% academic requirement for eligibility. While the call offers hope for thousands of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) scholars, it arrives during a period of significant policy uncertainty. Recent reports indicate that coalition tensions have flared regarding the long-term structure of student funding. While some factions of the GNU advocate for stabilizing the current NSFAS and NRF models, others are calling for a decentralized system where universities directly manage disbursements from the National Treasury. For PhD candidates, this political friction creates a precarious environment. The NRF continues to offer Full Cost of Study (FCS) for financially needy South African citizens and Partial Cost of Study (PCS) for a limited 5% of international students, as detailed in the DSI-NRF Postgraduate Student Funding for the 2026 Academic Year. However, the potential for a radical overhaul of the funding agency model suggests that the 2026 cohort may be the last to operate under the current framework. Students are advised to submit their progress reports and new applications early to avoid administrative bottlenecks caused by these looming structural shifts.