Madhvani hands out 175 scholarships

Daily Monitor, 31st Aug, 2009

175 students have been awarded scholarships totaling Shs516m by the Madhvani Foundation. The scholarships for the 2009/10 academic year were awarded after a highly competitive selection process that culminated in personal interviews held at Makerere University.

Foundation Chairman Sam Rutega said they had increased their package by Shs18m.

“Initially we had set aside a budget with a ceiling of Shs500m for scholarships this year. However, due to the elevated number of students who made very strong academic and financial cases for support, the board felt it necessary to increase this amount and hence a further Shs16m was added to accommodate additional students,” Mr Rutega said.

160 of the scholarships went to undergraduate students while 15 went to post graduate candidates. They were concentrated in the fields of Business Administration, Information Technology and Agriculture, though few students got scholarships to study Engineering, Land Surveying, Law, Medicine and Pharmacy.

Mr Henry Kyemba, the Scholarships Selection Committee boss noted that the bursaries awarded were distributed almost evenly across all regions of the country.

“This pattern demonstrates the fact that the level of academic performance is improving progressively across the country as 5 years ago when the Foundation reinstituted the scholarships scheme almost 80 percent of the recipients came from the Central region and the East,” he said.

He however expressed disappointment at the high level of absenteeism, as over 30 candidates who had been shortlisted for interviews didn’t show up.

The Madhvani Foundation was established in 1965 to honour the vision of the founder of the Madhvani group, the late Muljibhai Prabhudas Madhvani. In 2003 the Board set up the University Education Trust with the principal objective being the promotion of scientific and technical education.