by Thembisile Dzonzi | Feb 5, 2016 | Featured 1, News
The Wits Business School has set aside R 2 million in scholarships for MBA students from across Africa who are in financial need.
With the conversation surrounding #Access still hot on the lips of students and staff, the Wits Business School (WBS) announced that the institution will be giving nine exceptional candidates scholarships for the 2016 academic year.
“The selection process is straight forward, we look at the candidate’s financial need, academic merit and career progression to see how they have done in the working environment. Candidates are required to submit a motivational video stating why they want to study and what they propose to do with the qualification,” said Conrad Viedge, MBA programme director at WBS.
The proposed MBA scholarships valued at over R2-million will be available to both full and part time MBA programme applicants from across Africa.
“The bursary is sponsored through the university with money sourced from our third stream income,” said Viedge.
There are different types of scholarships available: Full scholarships which cover the full tuition, textbooks, living allowance and an international study tour. The partial scholarship insures a sizable contribution towards tuition fees while merit scholarships provide for a smaller portion of the MBA tuition fees.
Before applying for the bursary, applicants must first be accepted into the MBA programme. Candidates will then be notified on the progress of their funding request.
In a statement Prof. Steve Bluen, head of the Wits Business School, said “One of our four pillars of excellence here at WBS is character excellence. Through this, WBS aims to graduate leaders that strive for inclusivity and sustainability and are driven by a desire to make a difference. But as a school we lead by example and the scholarship programme is just one instance of this in action.”
Applications for the first term of 2016 are currently closed but you can still check the WBS website for announcements regarding scholarships for the June 2016 MBA intake.
by Pheladi Sethusa | Feb 21, 2014 | News
Total South Africa and Wits University renewed the metaphoric vows of their partnership earlier this week.
In 2010 Total SA signed their first memorandum of understanding with Wits, which saw Total funding students’ studies and research at the university in an effort to remedy the skills shortage present in South Africa.
DOTTED LINE: Total’s CEO, Christian des Closiéres and Wits VC Prof Adam Habib renew a memorandum of agreement, in which Total pledge financial support for the university. Photo: Pheladi Sethusa
Total SA’s managing director and CEO, Christian des Closiéres, said Total had over 90 scholarships on the continent to make sure the youth are equipped with the “powerful weapon” of education. Des Closiéres said the partnership with Wits went beyond financing students’ studies and included a multidimensional investment that saw Total funding research and training of academic staff at Wits. In total 14 students had benefitted from the partnership over the past three years.
Highlighting why he saw the partnership as mutually beneficial, Wits Vice Chancellor Prof Adam Habib said Total would need the capacities of “a whole new generation of engineers” and the skills of many other professions.
While Wits may have a much smaller engineering programme than the University of Pretoria but it is “perhaps the strongest engineering programme in the country and probably the continent,” said Habib. He said this strength lay in the vast amount of engineering research done at Wits, and being one of the only universities in the world with a mining engineering school, was another advantage.
Wits hopes to branch out into petroleum engineering and the partnership with Total could facilitate this move. “Wits as an institution is beginning to ensure that the capacity for petroleum engineering, the skill sets required for it and the partnerships required for it, is developed in the country,” said Habib.
Along with this, Wits is trying to build partnerships with other universities across the continent to “begin to weave an intellectual capacity that can begin to support the developmental agenda of the African continent”.
Two ex-Witsies, whose studies were sponsored by Total, were present at the signing and said they were particularly grateful for the opportunity to go to Total’s summer school while they were studying at Wits.
The summer school runs for a week and consists of a series of seminars on various energy issues. Chemical engineering graduate Thulisile Cingo said the summer school was a way for Total to get insight and ideas from the various students they fund worldwide.
