SCHOLARSHIPS WORTH 700 MILLION SHILLINGS HELP GIFTED BUT POOR STUDENTS
(Posted 12th June 2015)
Threehundred shortlisted students will in a month have to convince the Madhvani Foundation selection panel, when they have a career defining interview, aimed to determine if they will qualify to be one of the scholars supported by a 700 million Uganda Shillings the Foundation set aside for the 2015/16 academic year.
This follows the application period across the month of April and the shortlisting process which was carried out during the month of May. The chairman of the Foundation, former education minister Gabriel Opio, went on record yesterday when he said: ‘We expect to take on a bigger number of beneficiaries compared to last year because of the increase in the scholarship Fund by 50 million shillings to make 700 million for the scholarship package this year. Our aim is to encourage and enable science scholars to pursue the much needed disciplines for Uganda’s Labor market. We realized that many underprivileged and yet academically brilliant students couldn’t afford these expensive courses. With this boost we hope to give more opportunity to the academically gifted students’.
Interviews for the shortlisted candidates will be held from 13th July to 17th July, 2015 at Makerere University Kampala and a list of names and their interview times can be found on the Madhvani Foundation website via www.madhvanifoundation.com
The Madhvani Foundation Scholarship programme is running in its 12th year now, with a disbursement of over 4 billion Uganda Shillings over the years. These funds helped to support over 2.000 Ugandan students studying both scientific and technical courses. The earmarked science and technical disciplines for sponsorship include Agriculture, Biology, Chemistry, Actuarial Science, Architecture, Veterinary Medicine, Commerce, Hotel Management, Pharmacy, Nursing, Engineering, Food Science & Technology, Information Technology, Environment, and Medicine. This year did four students make it on the shortlist keen on continuing their studies for hotel management, leisure and hospitality management and tourism courses. Another four from the field of environmental and forestry studies also made it on the shortlist as did one seeking a masters degree in Wildlife, Tourism and Recreation Management.
The students eligible for the scholarships are needy undergraduate students, who have completed first year of studies at a Ugandan University; and graduate applicants who have been either admitted and/or registered for graduate programmes, and who lack sufficient funds to continue or finish their studies.
Sadly was the application process this year not spared from attempted fraud as imposters attempted to sell the application forms for as much as 50.000 Uganda Shillings and for a further 200.000 Uganda Shillings promised desperate students to get them on the shortlist. Mr. Roni Madhvani, one of the Directors of the group, commented to this correspondent yesterday: ‘As a Foundation we conduct our affairs very transparently and do not tolerate any form of canvassing. During the application period our forms are sold for a stationery fee of only UShs 2.000 at our offices in Industrial Area, while on the website they can be downloaded for free. Educational fraud is a matter we take very seriously because it negatively impacts on the generous work the Foundation has done and is still doing’.
Former students have more recently launched an Alumni Association and pledged to support the Foundation’s goals and objectives, by giving counsel to students on the programme as well as by extending financial support to the Foundation.
