Professional Provident Society (PPS)

PPS has served graduate professionals for 85 years, and PPS works differently from a listed company: instead of belonging to shareholders on a stock exchange, PPS belongs to its members. PPS sells insurance, investment and healthcare products only to graduate professionals, such as doctors, engineers, accountants and lawyers, and shares its profits with those members.

Registered name

Professional Provident Society (PPS)

Type

Mutual financial services company for graduate professionals

Fields funded

STEM and professional degrees

Website

pps.co.za

Phone

011 772 2300

The PPS Foundation and its goals

PPS established the PPS Foundation in 2016. The foundation links its work to several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including quality education, gender equality, decent work and industry innovation. Its primary objective is to widen access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and the foundation says its motivation comes from PPS’s values of mutuality and collective success.

LEAP: support after the bursary

The PPS Foundation does more than pay fees. The foundation introduced the Learned, Engaged, Accelerated Professionals (LEAP) Work Readiness programme to help beneficiaries move from university into work. LEAP workshops cover personal branding, communication, CV preparation, interview skills and financial wellness, all tailored to South African workplaces.

Timing of the PPS Foundation round

The PPS Foundation opens its portal in October or November each year. For 2026 study, the round closed on 20 December 2025, shortlisted students submitted final transcripts by 16 January 2026, and outcomes followed by 31 January 2026. The 2027 call had not been published when BursariesAfrica checked, so expect the 2027 round to close in mid-December 2026.

The PPS Pioneer Scholarship sits within the same foundation, and BursariesAfrica had no separate 2027 call for it when researching this page.

Researching PPS before applying

PPS defines graduate professionals carefully: its products are aimed at people with four-year degrees and certain other qualifications, such as a three-year degree plus a postgraduate qualification. That definition hints at the kinds of students the foundation wants to support, so check whether your intended qualification leads to a profession PPS serves. Read the foundation overview on pps.co.za and note the December timeline, because the transcript deadline falls during the university holidays.

Because PPS is a mutual society, the foundation’s bursaries do not require recipients to work for PPS, but read the terms of any offer in full.

STEM students can compare the PPS Foundation with other funders on our Engineering Bursaries and Medical Bursaries pages.