Students

Students’ who are in need of financial assistance firstly contact their Financial Aid departments at the universities upon registration. The university staff are aware of our criteria in selecting candidates for support, i.e. students must have already passed first year (at least) of their studies; the brightest students are selected for support in the prescribed disciplines.

The universities then submit records of students they would like us to consider for bursaries, and we select as many students as we can support financially. We, and the universities themselves, then inform the students who have been selected what the amount of his/her bursary for the year will be and the conditions we place upon them in accepting our assistance.

At the end of each semester, the universities send Link-SA a printout of examination results of the students supported by the Trust. Additionally, each student is required to write us a 1-2 page letter/report at the end of their academic year describing the high points and any low points they have experienced during the academic year, informing us of any charitable work they might be involved in, or mentoring of other students. We ask them to let us know if they have had to overcome any specific hardship during the year so that we can address the problem. The other condition placed on successful candidates is that they do not bring ill repute to themselves or their university during their year of study.

Having evaluated the letters and the examination results, we are then able to determine each student’s financial need for the following academic year, and distribute our budgeted figure in an equitable manner.