South Deep Education Trust SDET Bursary Programme 2025

Bursary Details

The South Deep Education Trust (SDET) introduced the Bursary Programme in 2015 with the aim of providing funding to Grade 12 learners who are provisionally accepted for tertiary education in the following year, and current tertiary students, from the South Deep Mine’s host and labour-sending areas.

Candidate Requirements

• Individuals from low-income households (i.e., total annual household income is R350 000 or less) from:
  • South Deep host community and surrounding areas (Westonaria, Bekkersdal, Simunye, Poortjie)
  • South Deep Labour Sending Areas (KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Eastern Cape) 
• Must not be a dependent of an employee of Gold Fields or any of its divisions or associated companies and/or a dependent of a Trustee of the South Deep Education and Community Trusts; 
• For Grade 12 applicants:  
  • Must have achieved an average pass mark of 75% (excluding Life Orientation) for their National Senior Certificate;  
  • Applicant must be provisionally accepted for first year of study towards a diploma or degree in any technical or non-technical field of study at any public university or public TVET college in South Africa;  
  • Must not have existing bursaries, scholarships or any other form of funding assistance for their tertiary studies.
• For applicants currently at university/TVET college:  
  • First time applicants who are already pursuing their tertiary studies: must have achieved an average pass mark of 65% in their most recent year of study. Should the student have achieved 65% but failed a particular module, the Trust will not pay for the repeat module and the student will be fully responsible for the cost of repeating the module.  
  • Returning SDET bursary applicants: must have passed the most recent year of study. Should the student have failed a particular module, the Trust will not pay for the repeat module and the student will be fully responsible for the cost of repeating the module. 

Bursary Inclusion

If your application is successful, the bursary will cover the following costs:
• Full tuition
• Accommodation (on-campus and off-campus)
• Textbooks
• Equipment (on a case-by-case basis for specialised qualifications e.g., dentistry, architecture, engineering, etc.)
• Laptop allowance
• Monthly stipend (for 10 months)
• Personal development, mentorship support and additional tutoring (this will be on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of the SDET Trustees).

Field of Study

Any Field of Study