Aspirant South African students have a chance to jet off to Mauritius to further their education.
The Mauritius’ Africa Scholarship Scheme is calling on eligible students to apply to study for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at the country’s universities.
The scholarship programme is offered to students who are resident citizens of member states of the African Union (AU) or African Commonwealth countries. The scholarship is not limited to South Africa and its neighbouring countries Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia and Mozambique.
The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) is the Nominating Agency for South Africans who wish to apply for the Mauritius-Africa Scholarship Scheme.
It covers annual tuition fees and course-related costs of MUR 100,000 (R36,154), a monthly living allowance of MUR 12,500 (approximately R4,500), return airfare to and from Mauritius with students being entitled to free basic health care in public hospitals in Mauritius.
Who can apply?
General criteria:
- South African citizens in good health and with a strong academic record;
- Candidates must have an interest in studying in Mauritius and demonstrate a commitment to the development of South Africa;
- Candidates must be available to study in Mauritius at the start of their academic programme in April 2022;
- All applicants must meet the entry criteria for their selected programme in Mauritius;
- All applicants must meet the minimum academic requirement for entry into a similar programme at a South African university;
- All candidates must have proficiency in English;
- Not be in receipt of a scholarship from any other public source in Mauritius;
- Applicants must have already applied for full-time on-campus studies at any public Higher Education Institution in Mauritius for the academic year starting in 2022 (proof of application is required by 19 February 2022);
- Awardees should be vaccinated against COVID-19 to have access to higher education institutions in Mauritius. Awardees who cannot for medical purposes be vaccinated will be required to produce duly certified medical certificates;
- Applicants must be prepared to undergo a medical check-up as per the Passport and Immigration Office requirements (http://passport.govmu.org), in Mauritius and the test results shall be submitted to the Passport and Immigration Office, with a copy to the Ministry, not later than one month after arrival in Mauritius.
Undergraduate, Master’s and PhD scholarships have different application criteria
Undergraduate scholarship applicants:
- Must have successfully completed National Senior Certificate with a Bachelor’s pass and a minimum of 60% average mark achieved, excluding Life Orientation subject;
- Applicants should be above 18 years of age and should not have reached their 26th birthday by August 2022.
- Candidates already holding an undergraduate degree will not be considered.
Master’s scholarship applicants:
- Master’s applicants must have completed an Honour’s degree with a minimum of 60% average mark achieved;
- Applicants should not have reached 35 years of age by 22 August 2022;
- All applicants must submit a detailed study/research plan of about 750 words and a name of a proposed supervisor in Mauritius, where applicable;
- Applicants already holding a Masters’ degree or its equivalent will not be considered.
PhD scholarship applicants:
- PhD applicants must already hold a Master’s by research or equivalent degree in the relevant field with a minimum of 60% average mark achieved;
- Applicants should not have reached 40 years of age by 22 August 2022
- All applicants must submit a detailed study/research plan of about 1 500 words and a name of a proposed supervisor in Mauritius, where applicable;
- Applicants must submit evidence of support from a named supervisor from one of the universities in Mauritius together with their application;
- Applicants already holding a PhD degree or its equivalent will not be considered.
Various fields of study are available at participating public tertiary education institutions in Mauritius for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. More information on study fields is available under guidelines for each study level below.
How can you apply?
All applicants must apply through the DHET.
STEP ONE: Submit an application for admission to identified eligible institutions in Mauritius (an application fee may be required and should be paid by the applicant as soon as the applicant has been informed of a successful nomination by the DHET). The application fee shall be refunded to successful applicants.
Final due date for submission of conditional offer/proof of application and proof of payment for application is 19 February 2022.
STEP TWO: Complete the Mauritius Africa Scholarship Scheme application form and email it to internationalscholarships@dhet.gov.za no later than 31 January 2022 for April 2022 intake. At this point applicants are not required to complete section 6 (medical certificate). Applicants are requested to make sure they utilise the correct application form for their level of study.
The following documents MUST accompany the completed application form:
- Certified copy of birth certificate.
- Certified copy of biodata page of passport.
- Certified copies of all post-school qualification certificate.
- Certified copies of all post-school academic transcripts.
- Copy of letter of conditional offer by a public Higher Education Institution in Mauritius (if available at time of application) OR proof of application/ copy of acknowledgement notice from a Mauritian public HEI that the application has been made and the appropriate application fee has been paid. Due date 19 February 2022.
-Proof of payment of application fees.
- All postgraduate (Master’s and PhD) applications must attach a 1-2 page research plan, including research aims and objectives, methodology and social relevance of the proposed study. Please refer to the guidelines for information about the study plan.
All documents submitted must be clear and in PDF format (no photographs of documents will be accepted).
STEP THREE: Shortlisted applicants may be required to complete an online questionnaire that will be sent in due course.
Following receipt of the online questionnaire, there will be further short-listing of applicants going into the next round of selection who may be invited to attend an interview between 7 – 11 February 2022. Successful applicants from the interviews will be informed by 11 February 2022 on the next steps.
ONLY nominated applicants will be requested to submit the medical certificate, completed and stamped by a Registered Medical Practitioner in Section 6 of the Mauritius-Africa Scholarship application form. Applicants should be prepared to pay for the medical check-up. The fully completed application document should be submitted to the DHET by no later than 19 February 2022.
STEP FOUR: Nominated applicants will be informed of their final nomination and their application will be further reviewed by the Government of Mauritius and the final decision on the successful applicants will be made.