Key facts
- Status
- Check with the provider
- Provider
- Wits
- Study level
- Postgraduate
- Academic year
- 2027
- Last checked
- September 2026
The PMA has no application or closing date; Wits awards it automatically to postgraduate applicants with a firm offer and allocates Council funds by the end of March.
VerifiedThe Postgraduate Merit Award (PMA) is the University of the Witwatersrand’s own tuition award for strong students entering Honours, Master’s or PhD study on a full-time basis. Wits pays tuition fees up to a maximum of R71,900 and adds a stipend in return for academic work in the student’s school. Nobody fills in a form for it: the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office runs an automated check against every postgraduate applicant who holds a firm offer, and the award appears on the fee statement of those who meet the marks.
Wits pays the PMA from University Council funds, and the scholarships page says all Council funds are allocated by the end of March each year. The figures below come from the 2026 PMA terms and conditions, which are the current terms on the Wits site; Wits had not posted a 2027 version when this page was checked.
The 75% mark at each level
Every level uses the same threshold of 75%, measured on the qualification that leads into the new degree. Wits applies a weighted average to its own students and a plain average to students coming from other institutions.
| Degree you are entering | Marks Wits looks at | Time limit on the earlier degree |
|---|---|---|
| Honours | Final year (year of study 3) of the undergraduate degree, or a three-year National Diploma, at 75% or above | Completed within N+1 years |
| Master’s by research, or by coursework and research | Fourth year of a professional degree, the Honours year or a Postgraduate Diploma, at 75% or above; candidates are ranked by average | None stated |
| PhD | Master’s degree with a 75% average | Master’s completed within N+1 years |
The terms say a repeated year of study, a supplementary or deferred examination, or a rewritten module is taken into consideration. Modules taken for non-degree purposes or as occasional studies are not evaluated.
Qualifications the PMA does not pay for
The award is limited to Honours, Master’s and doctoral degrees studied full-time. The 2026 terms exclude:
- all undergraduate degrees, including professional degrees such as the LLB, MBBCh, BSc Engineering and BEd;
- Postgraduate Diplomas, Advanced Diplomas and Postgraduate Certificates;
- the Master of Business Administration (MBA);
- part-time study (no new part-time awards have been made since 2023) and block-release programmes;
- students registered as Awaiting Examiners.
The PMA also does not cover international registration fees, clubs and societies or parking.
Six hours a week of departmental duties
Full-time recipients owe their school six hours of academically related work a week in each teaching block. The school decides what the duties are, and the terms state that they should be academic rather than administrative. The school sends the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office a list, approved by the Head of School, of students who completed their hours, and only then is the stipend for that block released. Failure to perform the duties leads to the award being withdrawn.
The 2026 terms list a stipend of R5,900 per block for Honours, Master’s and PhD recipients, with school submission dates of 18 March, 15 May, 1 September and 23 October 2026. Students need their banking details updated on the Wits self-service portal before the first submission date, and the final stipend is held back if fees are still outstanding after it is paid.
Renewal periods and funding ceilings
A full-time award normally runs for one year at Honours, two years at Master’s and three years at PhD level. Each level also has a ceiling on total funding from every source combined, including the PMA, NRF funding and any external or faculty bursary: R203,400 for Honours, R248,000 for Master’s and R318,500 for a PhD. If a student goes over the ceiling, Wits reverses or reduces the tuition and stipend, so remaining stipend payments can fall away. Students who switch from full-time to part-time lose eligibility.
Two wider Council-funding rules also apply. A student who is eligible but receives NSFAS funding gets no Wits money, although the award is recorded on the academic transcript. Deregistering for any reason cancels the award.
Getting considered without an application
The route to the PMA is the postgraduate admission application itself, made through the Wits online application portal. Only applicants with a firm offer are assessed. The automated run happens for each of the four postgraduate intakes (January, April, July and September), and the award applies only to the intake the student chose on the admission application. There are no appeals, because selection follows the criteria and the funds available.
An offer is provisional until it shows on the fee account. It stays conditional on registering for the level, attendance type and intake applied for, and on doing the duties. Students who add modules, change between part-time and full-time, or upgrade or convert their degree must tell the Financial Aid Office. Anyone who wants to turn the award down writes to info.finaid@wits.ac.za with the subject “Cancellation of PMA”. Other student queries go through the Wits help portal.
Because the PMA stops at R71,900 and excludes many programmes, most postgraduates combine it with other funding. The DSI-NRF Postgraduate Scholarship is the main national option, and our postgraduate bursaries list covers company and foundation funders. The Wits provider profile lists the university’s other awards.
FAQs
Checked the requirements and closing date? Apply directly with the provider.
Apply on the provider’s website
About Wits
Public university (research-intensive)
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits) is a public research university in the economic hub of the continent. Wits says it has been inextricably linked to the development of Johannesburg for more than 100 years, and it…
Read the full Wits profile →- Website
- wits.ac.za