south african bursaries

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 Scholarships and Bursaries

South African scholarships and bursaries are often considered the same thing in South Africa with minor differences.

South African scholarships and bursaries are often considered the same thing in South Africa with minor differences. Students in South Africa will likely be very aware of the prevalence of bursary schemes in their country, often having to exchange time worked after graduation for payment of school costs. Even the national bursary scheme as offered by the South African national government provides only loans which, depending on academic merit, may later result in the conversation of only some debt into non-repayable bursaries. As students in America are very well aware of scholarships and very rarely knowledgeable with regards to bursaries, students in South Africa will likely know much about bursary schemes but be very lacking on information regarding scholarship opportunities. Despite this difference in balance with regards to non-repayable funding, students in South Africa do have a robust series of South African scholarships to which they may apply.

For those students who are not interested in working at a particular business after graduation, or do not want to build up debt through national loans or bursaries should consider applying to South African scholarship programs available around the country. Though there are a fair number of programs available, a disproportionate number of these South African scholarships are available to post graduate learners attempting to earn a master’s or doctoral degree in their field. Also important to know is that many South African scholarships are available specifically through individual college departments and are considered highly competitive. Students interested in these programs should understand immediately that trying to get into an available program will require exceptional dedication and a high standard of academic history.

A good example of a college department providing South African scholarships is the Biological Invasions program offered by the Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University. This South African scholarship has only six positions available for interested applicants – three honors students, two Masters of Science, one PhD student and one post doctoral applicant. Developed to help in the Early Detection and Rapid Response Program these research oriented scholarships will bring students up to date on topics such as GIS mapping, taxonomy, population modeling, and evolutionary biology. All applicants are expected to be enthusiastic about their field and prepared to do intense research in the field. The scholarship provides enough money to cover both living expenses and university costs. In order to apply for this South African scholarship students will need to submit a research thesis indicating what relating to the Early Detection and Rapid Response Program they are interested in researching. The selection committee will consider all applications and make a decision based on the merit of submitted proposals.

The Canon Collins Trust provides a scholarship for students entering graduate school on almost any topic so long the student is able to describe how the study of a particular topic will help develop South Africa. This widely applicable South African Scholarship is a great way for students entering graduate education with an interest in helping in community development find additional funding for school. All South African students entering graduate school are eligible to apply for this program. In order to apply to this South African scholarship students will need to provide an official copy of their school transcripts, a small photo, two sealed reference letters from two professors or a single teacher and an employer. In order to get access to the award, however, applicants will need to capably explain how their education is going to aid in the development of South Africa. This can of course be tricky for students studying something like Literature, but certainly can be done. Applicants should explore what their interests are – are they interested in building reading in communities, for instance? By adequately explaining not only how a particular pursuit can be used to develop the country but also how an individual student will be applying that knowledge when they graduate will be a massive boon to any application. Currently applications are not open for 2011, but students should pay attention to the website because the program is expected to open again for applicants on April 1. At this time a deadline will be announced.

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.

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