Wolfson announces the Bongani Mayosi Scholarship for African students

Wolfson is delighted to announce the establishment of the Bongani Mayosi Scholarship, named in memory of Professor Bongani Mayosi, a Wolfson graduate, and one of the world’s leading cardiologists and most revered doctors in Africa.

Available to a Master’s student from Africa for each of the next five years beginning in October 2026, this funding will cover tuition fees and living expenses for taught postgraduate studies at Oxford University, in any field. The scholarship also provides logistical support, including an economy return flight, visa and health surcharge fees, and a settling down allowance.

The funding for this scholarship comes from Wolfson’s own resources, and a significant contribution from the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Programme at Oxford, coordinated by the Africa-Oxford (AfOx) initiative. The scholarship will therefore also be a Mastercard Foundation Scholarship. The Bongani Mayosi Scholarship will be one of two such scholarships at Wolfson, alongside the newly-created Godfrey Lienhardt Scholarship, named after the anthropologist and late Governing Body Fellow of the College.

Born in Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, Bongani Mayosi studied medicine at the now University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Nelson Mandela School of Medicine in Durban and at Wolfson College, Oxford, where he received a DPhil. He was the Nuffield Oxford Medical Fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine from 1998 to 2001. After returning to South Africa, he later became Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town. He was elected to the US Academy of Medicine in 2017, published more than 300 peer-reviewed academic papers, and was made an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College in 2016. He tragically died at the age of 51 in 2018. Professor Mayosi’s career exemplifies what we hope this scholarship will achieve.

As Hugh Watkins, Radcliffe Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford said,

“Through the example he set, the networks he built, and his unparalleled efforts to mentor others, he has left a lasting legacy.”

Speaking about him and his life Sir Tim Hitchens said: “Bongani Mayosi was a leader of his generation; a Wolfson graduate; and an inspiration across the continent to all those Africans who believe they are as capable of ground-breaking research as anyone in the world. His tragically early death only served to highlight the potential and the ambition he embodied.”

We’re excited to establish this special scholarship in Bogani Mayosi’s name and look forward to being able to support the next generation of leaders here at Wolfson College.