The Mastercard Foundation - RUFORUM Scholarships

The Mastercard Foundation - RUFORUM Scholarships

The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) in partnership with The Mastercard Foundation, Gulu University and Egerton University are implementing an eight year program aimed at transforming African agricultural universities and their graduates to better respond to developmental challenges through enhanced application of science, technology, business and innovation for rural agricultural transformation. This is an eight year program (2016-2024) and will support students that are economically disadvantaged as well as those from post-conflict and conflict affected areas of Africa. Interested applicants will undertake their training at Gulu University and Egerton University.
This scholarship opportunity is open to African students of all race, colour, and descent, particularly those who are economically disadvantaged and from conflict and post-conflict areas of Africa. The applicant should be eligible for admission into undergraduate and/or postgraduate programmes at Gulu University and/or Egerton University as listed above. Students already holding any other scholarship of any kind are not eligible to benefit from this scholarship opportunity. If found, anyone student with a double scholarship will automatically be discontinued. Prospective applicants should meet the following criteria:

1. Be a national of Kenya and Uganda to benefit from the national respective scholarship quota
2. Be a citizen of any African country to benefit from the Africa region scholarship quota
3. Be from economically disadvantaged, marginalized communities, coming from conflict and post conflict areas.
4. Be less than 25 years for undergraduate and less than 30 years for master’s studies at the time of application.
5. Should have completed secondary school and/or diploma for a bachelor’s degree application not more than two years before the time of this call.
6. The applicant should meet admission criteria to eligible programs in the university of choice (Egerton University or Gulu University).
7. For admission into Gulu University for an undergraduate degree programme one must have attained the High School Certificate (HSC) also known as Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) or its equivalent. For admission into Egerton University one must have completed the Kenya Secondary Education Certificate (KSCE) or its equivalent.
8. Demonstrate interest in agriculture, agribusiness and entrepreneurship
9. Demonstrate leadership qualities.
10. Have commitment to working in agriculture and agricultural value chains
11. Have a strong commitment to community transformation

This is a full-board comprehensive scholarship that covers: tuition fees, one return air ticket for African students from outside Uganda and Kenya, research costs, workshop and conference costs, living expenses including stipend and accommodation fees, laptop, internship attachment, community engagement and field attachment, and entrepreneurship training. Consequently, considering the level of investment, successful applicants will be required to become high achievers, highly engaged and focused students/graduates and change makers in their communities and Africa in general. This scholarship has the following attributes:

1. This is a comprehensive scholarship with direct and indirect costs. Direct costs for student training will be transferred to the university as a grant payable to the university. The students will meanwhile receive their respective services and entitlements from the university as the implementer and, where necessary, from RUFORUM.
2. All scholarships will be on a rolling basis implying that annual renewal of funding is subject to satisfactory academic performance at grade B level of the respective university.
3. Retaking more than two courses will lead to the withdrawal of the scholarship awarded to the candidate.
4. Applicants who may be discovered to have falsified information in order to gain advantage of the scholarship shall be disqualified.
5. Successful applicants will be expected to become champions and transformative leaders, entrepreneurs and change makers at various levels and shall remain in communication with RUFORUM and its member universities, where necessary, for at least 5 years after completing their studies.
6. Any misconduct (breach of university rules and regulations including participation in riotous acts) on the part of the successful applicant shall lead to automatic disqualification and loss of the scholarship.