Fashion and Textile Bursaries in South Africa

Most fashion training in South Africa happens at private schools, and NSFAS does not fund private institutions. That single fact decides how this field is funded: through the schools’ own scholarships and competitions, through the retail groups that employ designers and buyers, and through the clothing and textile union, if a parent is a member.

If you can study fashion or textile design at a public university or university of technology, do that first. It is the only route where the full cost can be covered.

SACTWU bursary

The Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union runs the largest fund connected to this industry. It is not a fashion bursary as such, it funds any qualifying degree or diploma, but it is the one most fashion families qualify for without knowing it.

Its own rules are specific:

• Only SACTWU members, SACTWU staff, and their spouse and child qualify. Non-members do not.
• The member must be paid up 13 weeks before 1 November, which in practice means by the end of July.
• Universities and universities of technology qualify. Private institutions registered with the Department of Higher Education qualify, but only for accredited courses.
• TVET colleges do not qualify at all. The rules state plainly that the union does not sponsor FET or TVET colleges. Bridging courses are also excluded.
• Dependants aged 25 or younger are granted a bursary automatically, subject to the rules. Older applicants go to a committee.
• Every child dependant must join the Sactwu Student Union and do 50 hours of voluntary community service for each year funded.

Two rules catch people out. The community service is not optional and not a bonus: it scales the award. More than 50 hours pays 105% of the qualifying amount, 50 hours pays 100%, and no community service pays 60%. And rule 18 says bursaries are only paid to students who do not qualify for any other bursary or funding, so this is not designed to sit on top of NSFAS. Ask the bursary department how it treats your case.

The award is 75% of qualifying tuition a year, before the community service adjustment. In the rules we read, the cap was R23 450 at a public university and R4 690 at a private institution, with spouses receiving half the amount. Those figures are from the 2021 edition of the rules, which is still the edition the union publishes, so confirm the current cap with the bursary department. Rules read on 23 September 2026 in the SACTWU bursary fund rules. The fund has two closing dates a year: the end of February for full-year and first-semester study, and mid-August for second-semester study.

Retail group bursaries

The clothing retailers employ designers, buyers, planners and textile technologists, and they fund students directly.

Funder	Notes	Last confirmed closing
The Foschini Group	Fashion and textile alongside the arts. Open now	30 September 2026
Truworths	Fashion and textile alongside information technology. No 2027 date published	Varies
Mr Price, Woolworths and Shoprite	Retail learnerships rather than bursaries, and the most common paid entry route into buying and planning	Varies

Fashion school scholarships

The private schools run their own funding, usually as a competition with a portfolio or a design brief rather than as a means-tested bursary. They are worth entering because the applicant pool is small.

• Inscape — design education across several campuses. Its scholarship is open and closes on 31 October 2026.
• FEDISA — the Cape Town fashion school. Its round closed on 15 August 2026.
• The Design Academy of Fashion — its competition offers up to R88 320 towards a fashion degree and closed on 4 September 2026 after an extended deadline.
• The Gert-Johan Coetzee bursary — from the designer, and open to school leavers. It closed on 1 September 2026.

Enter more than one. These are judged on portfolio and motivation rather than marks, so a strong application can win several.

Government arts bursaries

• The DSAC Bursary for Creative Minds comes from the national Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and funds creative qualifications. It closed on 31 January 2026.
• The NYDA Solomon Mahlangu Scholarship Fund names fashion and textile among its fields.
• The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Sport, Arts and Culture funded fashion and textile, but its last confirmed round was for 2024. Treat it as dormant and check the department directly.

Textile bursaries

The textile side is funded separately from the design side, mostly by the commodity organisations that levy the fibre industries.

The Cape Wools SA bursary funds postgraduate study connected to wool. Its 2027 round is open and closes on 31 October 2026. See our agriculture bursaries page for the other commodity funds, which work the same way.

Qualifications funded

• Fashion design. Offered at both public universities of technology and private schools. The funding differs sharply between the two.
• Textile design and textile technology. Narrower, and funded on the science and commodity calls as well as the arts ones.
• Fashion retail, buying and planning. Funded by the retail groups, and often reached through a learnership rather than a bursary.
• Jewellery design. A separate field. See our jewellery design bursaries page.
• Clothing production and pattern technology. Taught at TVET colleges, funded by NSFAS but not by the SACTWU fund.

When to apply

Period	Action
End of July	The deadline to be a paid-up SACTWU member if a parent is going to apply to the fund for the following year.
August – September	FEDISA, Gert-Johan Coetzee and the Design Academy of Fashion close. The Foschini Group closes 30 September. SACTWU takes second-semester applications in mid-August.
October	Inscape and Cape Wools close 31 October. Apply to NSFAS by 31 October if you are going to a public institution.
January – February	The DSAC Creative Minds bursary closes 31 January. SACTWU closes at the end of February for the full year.

See also our arts bursaries page, graphic design bursaries, and commerce bursaries for the retail buying and planning route.