Student Merit Awards - Financial Aid (2024)

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Policy

• All students registered for an undergraduate degree or diploma may qualify for a Student Merit Bursary if their academic performance continues to be of a high standard.
• If the set Standard is achieved in year n, a qualifying student will receive a merit bursary in year n+1. (For example, if a student received a Scholar Merit Bursary in the first year and continues to perform very well every year, he/she may qualify for Student Merit Bursary for the second and further years of their first tertiary qualification.
• A Student merit bursary is regarded as a first payment towards fees.
• No Application is required as students are identified by using the Applicable Rules/Criteria.
• The student must achieve a Weighted Average academic performance which is determine per faculty:
  • Faculty of Arts – 75%
  • Faculty of Education – 75%
  • Faculty of Business and Economic Science – 75%
  • Faculty of Science – 70%
  • Faculty of Health Sciences – 70%
  • Faculty of EBEIT – 70%
  • Faculty of Law – 70%

Applicable Rules/Criteria:

• Students qualify for the Student Merit Award only in respect of their first undergraduate qualification.
• These bursaries will be allocated for one year at a time; a student must qualify anew for the bursary every year.
• Students must register for the full academic year for the degree or diploma in the year for which the award is made, including the year in which experiential learning takes place, otherwise the bursary will be forfeited.
  • if a student cancels his/her registration in the 1st semester the full award will be forfeited;
  • if a student cancels in the 2nd semester, 50% of the award will be forfeited;
• The student must have been registered for modules with a total credit value of not less than 96 credits (or a relative course weight (RCW) of not less than 0.8), irrespective of whether the student was registered part-time or full-time. (Exempted modules are not counted for total credit value or RCW purposes.)
• The student must have passed all the registered modules at the first attempt; a pass after a re-examination would be a disqualification.
• Occasional students do not qualify for this bursary.
• The rand value of the award will be determined annually in the light of the available budget and in terms of a sliding scale.
• The award cannot be carried forward to a next study period.
• These bursaries are available to South African as well as International students.

“Information contained in this document was correct at the time of publishing. The University reserves the right to amend the policy with regards to the bursary, and may in its sole discretion, decide to implement such amendments retrospectively”.