The National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) was established on 5 December 2013 as an independent statutory body in terms of Gazette No. 37118 vol. 582 and in accordance with Section 69 read with sections 38A, 38B, and 38C of the Higher Education Act (Act No 101 of 1997). The scope or application of the NIHSS will be to advance and co-ordinate scholarship, research and ethical practice in the fields of Humanities and the Social Sciences (HSS) within and through the existing public universities and those to be established or declared in future as public Universities. The work of the NIHSS will be guided by the following principles: The work of the NIHSS will be guided by the following principles: The principle of co-operation between institutions and the establishment of communities of scholarship in South Africa, Africa and international; The principle of norm-driven internationalisation, (co-operation and collaboration will not be for its own sake but on the basis of mutual respect and ...
NIHSS Funding
The NIHSS Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Programme affords Postdoctoral Fellows situated at public universities an opportunity to strive for excellence in the quality and transformative impacts of their research and commit to and uphold the highest forms of ethical standards.
This digital exhibition will allow you to discover various fragments of a threshold moment in South Africa’s liberation history. Your challenge is to piece the fragments together into a complete story. It’s a bit like being a historian or a journalist or a documentary filmmaker searching through an archive ...
Mobility grants provide funding support for South African researchers and postgraduate students wanting to visit non-South African universities across the African continent to pursue collaboration with scholars there, whether it be in joint teaching collaborations, new curriculum development ...
Further to the Catalytic Research Projects, the Working Groups for Academic Collaboration programme involves collectives of researchers whose cooperation is geared towards specified objectives. These collectives can be interdisciplinary and domain-specific groups that focus on specific areas of research, teaching and learning in the HSS field.
Humanities Hubs are centres of knowledge with a focus on heritage. They offer ways to use existing resources to engage communities in creating or reproducing new ways of knowing. Humanities Hubs is primarily a research-based programme;it aims to catalyse and open new avenues for scholarship in the humanities and social...
Professional Associations have been supported to further enhance the HSS, especially in matters related to curriculum reform. The NIHSS extends support to professional associations in the HSS. This is to ensure that the higher education landscape is more responsive to and inclusive of HSS and its disciplinary particularities...
The second profound way in which the NIHSS creates value is by dynamising the fields of research and teaching in the HSS through a range of Catalytic Research Projects and Humanities Hubs. The NIHSS will establish Catalytic Research Projects and Humanities Hubs by 2020. The main objective ...
NIHSS-CODESRIA Doctoral Scholarships
The NIHSS has partnered with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) to develop the African Pathways Doctoral Scholarship Programme. The aim of the scholarship is in line with the mandates of the Institute and Council to promote and facilitate research...
NIHSS-SAHUDA Doctoral Scholarships
The National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) invites applications from suitably qualified South African students to study full-time towards a humanities and social sciences doctoral degree at any of the participating South African public universities. The main objective of this programme is...