Government Bursaries offered from Various Countries

International students who want an education in other countries should look into direct government bursaries for student aid to help pay for their college.

Government Bursaries from Countries
Government Bursaries from Various Countries

International students looking to get their education in other countries want to look into the individual countries government bursaries to cover their cost to attend a college or university. Most all do have student bursaries with some type of student aid to help do this.

You may be just a regular student who is just looking for bursaries from your own government – this will also help you too!

Seeking direct government educational assistance in the form of bursaries, or other student financial aid offered by the various governments is the smart students way to pay for an education in other countries.

If students know where to apply, it may be as easy as filling out & submitting the required paperwork to receive student bursaries, grants, scholarships or other forms of student awards offered by governments throughout the world.

Some countries may use the terminology as bursaries, or scholarships & grants. They all mean the same thing – no repayment is necessary by the student once they are given the student financial aid award.

Below are various countries and their respective website locations to help students seek bursaries and other various forms of educational financial assistance to cover the cost of attendance.

Scholarships and Bursaries from Canada

Canada’s Provinces and Territories handle their bursaries and student aid separate, and at the same time also have access to a central bursary system for their students. Below we cover these.

Other Canadian Bursaries from CanLearn

CanLearn.ca is a service for Canadian students which provides the student aid information and other needed services so they can decide what field to study, what university to go to study and how to cover their costs.

CanLearn strives to offer trusted information & services to help Canadian students save, plan & finally pay for their education. CanLearn gives necessary resources to help students to masterfully make good educational decisions.

The CanLearn site was developed by the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments and Canadian learning and career development organizations.

Alberta Bursaries

A bursary is a monetary grant given to a student based on a demonstrated financial need or satisfactory academic achievement. Scholarships are a monetary award given to a student for academic excellence in a specific area of study, or for athletic excellence.

Ontario Bursaries

For a resource on Canadian bursaries from Ontario.

OSAP Canada Bursaries

When students apply for OSAP student aid assistance they are automatically evaluated for many grant & bursary programs offered by the federal & provincial government. Whether students are awarded the grant funds, it will depend on an eligibility criteria which will include student family income tiers. This is a great Canadian resource for students looking for student financial assistance.

Concordia University Bursries

This university nicely displays bursaries & student aid by Canadian Provincial & Territory so students can easily navigate for what they are looking for based on location and aid provided.

Study in Sweden Bursaries & Scholarships

Swedish scholarships are similar to bursaries.This website is a all-inclusive resource for higher education in Sweden for current & prospective international students. Many other scholarships are offered on this site too.

South African Bursaries

This is the official website of South Africa which has a comprehensive list of a multitude of South African bursaries and it is nicely categorized based on what occupation a student would like to study. For instance they have a listing of accounting/Law/Engineering/Health-science/Sport bursaries just to name a few. They have many others though.
Go to: http://bursaries-southafrica.co.za/ to see their home page which is impressively laid out!

United Kingdom Bursaries

This UK government website talks about bursaries and scholarships but one must search to find what they are looking for. Best suggestion is to type in ‘bursaries’ in the search bar in the upper right corner and you will find what you are looking for in the search results which come up.

Ireland Bursaries

The nidirect website is the official government website for Northern Ireland citizens. This website was designed to make things easier to find for the user; such as easy to access government information and services. Bursaries and financial aid can easily be found too.

Western Cape Bursaries

The official Western Cape Government website was created as a single point of access to government information & services for citizens of the Western Cape. Lots of government bursaries are offered, along with a listing of universities offering them too. A list of bursaries from National Departments, Public Entities, and International are shown as well. Other programs are offered to students such as Learner-ships, Internships, Apprenticeships, and Artisan-ships. Places of Volunteering to charitable organizations are also listed.

The above is a great starting point in helping students look for government bursaries offered from other countries.

South African Bursaries for South Africa Students

Bursaries for South African students are a patchwork of mostly private programs mixed in with some government bursaries and few mixed private/public.

south african bursaries
South African Bursaries

Different from bursary systems common to Europe and Canada, South African bursaries are nonetheless incredibly useful to students in the region offering great awards for those willing to step up to the plate. Bursaries for South African students are a patchwork of mostly private programs mixed in with some government bursaries and then a few mixed private/public collaborations. At first glance it may appear very chaotic, messy in many respects and perhaps difficult to navigate. However, once you’ve learned how South African bursaries tend to work, the system works very well and offers awards that many European or Canadian bursariessimply cannot compare to.

Though South Africa bursaries lack the elegance of the single form bursary application system common in many western countries, available programs are advertised quite readily and many are listed in bursary information packets available at individual universities. Even those that are not listed in such information packets are generally fairly easy to find if a searching student is willing to put in a little bit of time and effort.

Because the number of bursaries offered by the national government is relatively limited, large and even local companies have filled the fiscal void in a way which not only provides students with financial assistance but further helps to ensure that there is a readily available employment pool of skilled workers available for projects around the country. While it could be argued that such a situation works best for companies and less well for financially needy students, with the employment situation and development issues within South Africa it in many ways benefits the country as a whole.

Though the number of South African bursaries available through the government and local entities are limited, they certainly do exist. A first stop for a South African student, as is the same with a student from most Western nations, is their university’s financial aid department. Colleges in South Africa often offer their own bursary schemes for enrolled students whom have shown promising academic progress in their secondary and post secondary educations. These programs, compared to the full rides often offered by large South African companies, are generally fairly small but are certainly useful to students seeking financial aid.

Picking up a bursary information packet from the financial aid office at a university will give students a wide array of available South Africa bursaries which they may be eligible for. Normally managed by individual institutions, applying to these bursaries is normally as simple as submitting applications to the financial aid department and waiting to hear back regarding award status. Applying to these programs should always be a first step and students should do this as early as possible so that they can better assess the amount of money they still need for college if their award amounts do not cover all costs.

The next step for many students still searching for financial aid would be the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) which offers loans to those who can demonstrate monetary need. These programs often start out as loans which are required to be repaid, but in many cases can be converted into South African bursaries. The benefit of conversion should be fairly plain – if converted to a bursary, NSFAS loans do not have to be repaid. Like local bursaries offered by individual colleges, the NSFAS program can be applied to through the university a student is enrolled in.

One of the greatest differences between South Africa bursaries and those offered more commonly in the West is the prevalence of private programs. These private programs are very often highly competitive and provide an immense amount of money for students often covering not only the entirety of tuition but also covering living arrangement, meals, and travel needs. Differing from the South African bursaries offered by the national government and individual colleges, private bursaries very often focus highly on individual skill sets which are needed by the offering company. Beyond this, students entering a bursary agreement with a private company are very often required to work for them after graduation until the approximate cost of their bursary has been repaid. After that, their services may be terminated or they may find a long-term employment position with the company who paid for their schooling. This program type has a lot of really great benefits, but competitiveness around such private offerings often means that only those students who show exceptional dedication and great academic merit will find their ways into the programs.

Exxaro Bursaries South Africa

Government Bursaries and How they Work

In some countries government bursaries are offered to help students who are in need of financial aid.A Government bursary is common in Canada and South Africa.

Government Bursaries
Government Bursaries and How they Work

In some countries, government bursaries are offered to help students who are in need of financial aid. A Government bursary is very common in Canada, South Africa, and can be found in various forms in the United Kingdom. These student bursaries are normally available to those with an exceptional need due to disabilities, families, or poverty. Normally these sorts of bursaries are handled by local provincial governments, or even at the university level, so finding out about bursaries for your area should start with an inquiry at the local organization which handles applications for monetary aid. Aid is available to citizens of the province or locality, and as a result these government bursaries are not typically available to foreign students. Those students who are looking to travel outside of the country to attend school but will need government bursary aid to assist them in their funding should first sign up at a local institution’s exchange program, otherwise funds will not be available.

Bursaries offered by governments are normally given out with a number of fairly straight forward conditions attached. Some exist for students freshly entering college, designed to give those in need of exceptional financial assistance access to funds. It is not at all uncommon for repayment of these bursaries to hinge on academic achievement, meaning that those who do well in school will not have to worry about paying back any of the amount whereas those who perform poorly may find themselves having to reimburse the awarded amounts.

Other government bursaries, such as the Canada Millennium Bursary Program, offer assistance to students who have already been in school for at least 60% of a single year while also being eligible through financial need. Aspects of the Millennium Bursary Program also include the Millennium Access Bursary and Millenium Award, all government bursary programs designed to help students enter and maintain financial assistance at post secondary institutions. The deadlines for these programs will vary by province but most students are automatically entered for consideration when they apply for financial aid at their university.

Of course not every potential student is a citizen of Canada, and will need to find government bursary information for their own region. Like with scholarships, starting your bursary application process is ideally done early on. Because of the high demand for access to these government bursaries and only a limited amount of money available to disburse, starting early increases your chances of getting access to a program.

Further, the earlier you apply, the earlier you will know what your financial aid status is giving you a much clearer idea of how much money you may still need to find to complete your funding needs. The process of applying for a government bursary can sometimes take months, in the case of the Canada Millennium Bursary up to six months. As soon as you have an idea of where you will be attending school, it is important to start talking to provincial or local government bursary sources immediately or else you may quickly find yourself left behind.

Different government bursaries have access to different amounts of funds. The government bursary is not a guaranteed method of paying for school, but if you meet the appropriate criteria and apply in a timely manner they will more than likely turn out to be useful in your quest for aid. Look around at multiple sources on campus or through local government organizations which handle financial aid issues. Always make sure you have a full assessment of your status – know if you are a dependent according to your nation’s legal standards, know what your family’s income is, make sure you have identification and are prepared to wait a short while to speak with somebody. Fortunately, though the process can sometimes be a little long, many government bursaries allow you to apply for all available programs with a single form. This makes for a great convenience – once you’re done you should not have to worry about applying for any other programs which are covered by your initial application.