What Is a Bursary and Tips to Apply for It?

The term bursary may attract you when you surf the web to look for some helps to support your education. You may not have the chance to explore it that deep because you don’t have time, but you still are questioning: what is a bursary? Yes, a bursary can be said as the help to support your education when you’re having crisis on your financial basis. It’s a monetary award that is given to those who really need financial help to continue their education. Hearing such explanation, you may remember the term scholarship right away, but in fact, the two is different.

Though bursary and scholarship are indeed aimed to help those who cave for financial help to support their education, they are different in certain factors. Bursary is a merit-based award, while scholarship is an achievement-based award granted on the students’ basis. Most scholarships require their receivers to pay back in the form of money at the end of the program. On the other hand, bursary doesn’t have to be repaid with money. The receivers of bursary are required to repay the program through their commitment to do some real works for company. The period will be based on the bursary they’ve achieved to be paid back.

Applying for a bursary isn’t difficult. Once you know the concept and seek for information, the possibility is possible to grab. After answering the question “what is a bursary”, the action you may want to take is acknowledging you with how to successfully apply for it. Here are our tips:

1. You have understood and answered the “what is a bursary”, but you may get only the general part. First thing first, involve yourself in true journey of hunting for a bursary. Once you find what suits you, pay attention to the details in order to be complete in the applying phase. Make the assessor realize how your situation is really related to achieving the bursary, so don’t leave any point in the application. What also is important is to submit the forms on time. Pay attention to the deadline because late application won’t be for the assessor to concern about;
2. Have you heard about the government student financial aid and NSFAS? If you have heard about it and not yet applied for it, this is the right time before going too far with the bursary application. Students who have joined in such thing are often considered as those who indeed really need help for their education support. By showing your financial need is one of the quickest ways to be noticed in the bursary application;
3. Be realistic in filling out the budget for your academic year. Be realistic and honest, too, in telling them your resources and expenses.

We hope you enjoy learning about what is a bursary. We also hope you’ll get inspired by the above tips on how to successfully apply for one. We wish you nothing but the best in the application phase. Best luck!