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Please see the full requirements in the brochure in our MPhil in FinTech section.

Although beneficial, applicants are not required to have a technical background but must have a strong interest in learning. A four-year bachelor’s degree or an honours-equivalent qualification is compulsory. A GPA of 65% or higher preferred, though this is not a strict requirement. Exceptions may be made for candidates who demonstrate strong relevant experience, notable strengths and or transferable skills. All applicants must submit a letter of motivation, and there is no automated assessment process — each candidate is individually evaluated based on their full application.

We offer three types of bursaries, each with specific criteria but sharing a few common requirements. Across all bursaries, applicants must be full-time students and, if employed part-time, may work no more than 40 hours per month.
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MPhil in FinTech Master’s Bursaries
There are two subtypes: the Standard Track and the Business Track - please review the brochure in our MPhil in FinTech section for details. These bursaries are intended for students planning to register for the MPhil in FinTech degree the following year. Applications open each November, after all admissions offers for the next academic year have been finalized. The bursaries are open to all nationalities and income levels, though allocation may be based on financial need if funding limits apply. To date, every eligible MPhil in FinTech student who applied for a bursary has received funding, and our goal is to maintain this record to ensure that all students have the financial support needed to complete their degree.

Postdoctoral and PhD Bursaries
These bursaries are available to resident FinHub postdoctoral fellows and PhD candidates. Opportunities are advertised periodically on the FinHub website as new fellowships and PhD positions become available.

MiCT SETA Bursary
Applicants must be South African citizens and may not hold any other bursaries. This bursary supports incoming or current  master’s and PhD students enrolled at the University of Cape Town in a 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) research field.

We operate as a research unit in the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town. We convene the Masters in Philosophy (MPhil) in Financial Technology, a cross-disciplinary degree across computer science, statistics and economics departments at the University of Cape Town. In addition, we conduct and apply research in FinTech through our research and innovation pillars which also contribute to building capacity in the local ecosystem. Our other activities extend beyond the research unit into the broader UCT ecosystem including startup incubation via the GenesisBloc Pre-incubator, funding FinTech- and 4IR-related PhD and Masters research as well as holding bootcamps and hackathons.

We have an staple annual hackathon in June with a bootcamp. Both are held at the University of Cape Town in conjunction with our sponsors and is open to all students in higher education institutions accross the Western Cape. We also hold a biannual hackathon following summer/winter schools at our satellite FinTech Lab in the Eastern Cape in collaboration with the Cortex Hub.

This is a nine-month pre-incubator programme for startups at a idea/prototype/pre-seed stage. By the end of the programme, our goal is for each startup to complete at least one full product development cycle and progress to the next stage in the startup lifecycle whether it is launching their MVP in beta or scaling that MVP to production. We also have quarterly pitch evenings for startups to showcase their progress to industry peers and potential investors to gather important feedback for both their product and to practice refining their pitches and slide decks.

Each startup must have at least one founding member who is a current UCT student, a UCT alumni or be team recommended by one of our partners or donors.

As a policy, the UCT Financial Innovation does not take equity in a startup who participate in this programme.

All personnel involved with the programme including the hub staff, cohort mentors and their direct family members may not invest, solicit or have a financial interest in the startup they are involved in during the programme and must declare conflicts of interest if they arise.

The Hub is a UCT research unit and operates within the University of Cape Town as part of it's organisational structure but is completely externally funded (out-funded model) including all source of funds for bursaries and operational costs.

We are incredibly grateful to our generous donors which includes the Interledger Foundation, Ripple's University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), MICT SETA and the National Research Foundation (NRF).

Please fill out the form below or contact us directly at hub@uct.ac.za.

Opportunities to get involved include:
- Becoming a donor to support our bursaries and innovation initiatives.
- Joining as a Practitioner Seminar speaker, where you can engage with the MPhil in FinTech class and the broader FinHub ecosystem — an excellent platform for recruitment and sharing industry insights.
- Mentoring a startup in the GenesisBloc Pre-Incubator Programme, helping early-stage founders refine their ideas and develop viable FinTech solutions.