Finding University Bursaries for College Students

Finding university bursaries to help pay for your college education is not an easy thing to do. Once you discover a university bursary then you can apply to it. One of the things that students both applying and going to college know is that school is expensive. Finding a way to help pay for your education can be intimidating and time consuming, leaving people worried about debt they may have to accumulate and exhausted from their search. Fortunately for many students, financial aid is readily available in the form of university bursaries, and can often be used not only to pay for tuition but also for books or living expenses.

Depending on where you live, finding bursaries for university students can be as easy as stopping into your university’s bursary office, or doing a quick search on the internet for specific university bursary programs. While searching online sometimes requires a fair amount of patience, talking to your university’s bursary office is a sure fire way to get the information you need. In Canada and the United Kingdom, the bursary process is fairly simple and in most cases straight forward. While South Africa has a number of robust bursary programs for students available, they can sometimes be difficult to identify, especially if they are not directly offered through local government offices. Each of these countries provides basic university bursary programs.

Perhaps one of the easiest countries to apply to bursaries for university students in is Canada. This is because they have largely streamlined the process, allowing native students to apply for many college bursaries made available in their province through filling out a single bursary application. Because the basic process is so simple, for many students finding financial aid will be as easy as filling out a form and submitting it in a timely manner. However, the process is not 100% consistent throughout, and different deadlines still exist for many university bursary programs, forcing students to act earlier than others and maintain an understanding of when applications for bursaries they wish to apply for are due. Canadian students will want to visit their university’s bursary office and pick up a bursary information packet which should contain a list of available college bursaries as well as their respective deadlines. Additionally, individual departments at universities in Canada sometimes offer their own bursary programs for specific fields, and students may need to consult with their chosen departments to get a heads up on when these university bursary applications are due so that they do not miss important opportunities to apply for financial aid.

The United Kingdom operates in a similar fashion, though their university bursary programs are offered at two levels: nationally and at individual universities. While there are some bursaries for college students available at the national level, they are not always equally accessible for students in Scotland, Wales or in England proper. It is always essential for students in the UK to apply for university bursaries through a bursary office located on most college campuses. Like with Canada, when applying for financial aid the bursary office will assess eligibility of individual students for a wide variety of university bursaries.

Students should be aware of the regional differences that exist in the country, however, and make sure that a bursary program they are seeking is available in the region in which they are attending school. There are also some college bursaries which may be available for a student native to England proper but is attending school in Scotland, so students should make sure to look not only at the bursary office in the school they are attending but also consider what is available in the region they have traveled from.

Unlike both the UK and Canada, bursaries in South Africa are sometimes much more difficult to gain access to and an abundance of privately offered university bursaries are available nationally for students in particular fields. Though the government does offer programs that all students should have access to, the South African student will need to do a fair amount of research, contacting both their local financial aid office and conducting a good amount of individual leg work to make sure they have found all the programs they are eligible for.