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Uganda: How to Secure Funding for University Abroad
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The Monitor (Kampala)
COLUMN
16 May 2008
Posted to the web 16 May 2008
Eight years ago, I was not admitted to join the London School of Economics despite what I thought was a good application having been helped by a friend, who had just returned from Harvard University.
Later, I was told that my admission was not considered because there was no evidence that I had any experience in journalism.
"Next time," another friend, a Boston University graduate told me, "Make copies of your best published articles and submit them as part of your application."
This I did and the following year I was admitted to two universities: Leeds University and Baruch College, The City University of New York.
The latter offered me a Reuters Fellowship with reasonable stipend; and, I was exempted from both TOEFL (test of English as a foreign language) and GRE (Graduate Record Examination) exams. The only pre-admission exam I wrote was a 90 minutes test sent directly by the university to Mr. Ssimwogerere Kyazze, the then Sunday Monitor editor.
Of course there are many other events that occurred, which worked in my favour but I will only point out one thing that you too, can get funding for your or your child's university education abroad.
You have to know the basics like the significance of TOEFL, GRE, and GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test).
Today, unlike in the past it is rare for universities in North America and Australia to admit you without TOEFL scores.
Some embassies require TOEFL scores before issuing you a student visa, whether you have been exempted by the University or not. That might sound stringent, but the beauty is that funding opportunities seem to have increased.
Information about most of these opportunities is readily available on the Internet and at the respective embassies.
The U.S. embassy, for example, has a fully-fledged education section with an education counselor, Ms Connie Mutazindwa. In this section, you will find everything you need in addition to free TOEFL, GRE and GMAT preparation sessions.
If you are interested in borrowing some of the material, you have to pay membership, which is a paltry Shs20, 000 per year.
Canada and Australia are a little different from most countries in terms of scholarships. In these countries most scholarships are offered by the universities themselves. If you want details you can contact the Canadian consulate in Kampala.
If you interest is Australia, the nearest embassy is in Nairobi. But you need not go to Nairobi, because all the necessary funding information is available on the Internet.
Information about university funding in other countries like India, China, the Netherlands, Norway, Ireland, Denmark, France, Belgium, Egypt, South Africa; and the United Kingdom (United Kingdom) can easily be obtained from the respective embassies or organizations like the British Council (in case of the UK).
Other organizations, like the Commonwealth, channel their scholarships through the Education Ministry. But it is hard to tell what criteria is used to offer these scholarships given the level of graft; typical of third world countries.
However, there are some scholarships offered that are independent of government like the World Bank scholarships.
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These are jointly supported by the Japanese Government; and, although the forms are downloaded from the Internet all applications are sent to the World Bank head office in Washington D.C. Next week we shall look at local funding for university education
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