By Aaron Oguttu
Over the past twenty years, the Carnegie Corporation of New York has generously supported Makerere University’s Female Scholarship Initiative with a $ 4 million grant to enable 691 girls from disadvantaged backgrounds acquire quality university education. Of the 691 who were supported, 639 have since graduated, signaling a high completion rate of 92% and an excellent performance with 2% acquiring a first class, 38% bagging a second class upper, 55% of the girls finishing with a second class lower, and 3% being non-classified.
In addition to the quality education attained, Makerere’s Gender Mainstreaming Directorate (GMD) further developed a capacity building and mentoring strategy that has strengthened the beneficiaries’ personal and professional lives over the years.
Some of the graduates of the 73rd graduation enjoying the prestigious moment at Makerere University’s Freedom Square
The scholarship scheme, which was initiated by the Gender Mainstreaming Directorate was approved by the Makerere University Council in December 2010 and currently serves 40 students joining the university across the 10 colleges with a distribution of four students per college. Female students with disabilities stand an advantage of being granted a slot among the four per given college and are highly encouraged to apply. The scheme supports bright female students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds to access education at Makerere University.
The university waives off only tuition and functional fees for the duration of the study programme of the beneficiaries of the scheme, and all programmes in the colleges at Makerere University are eligible for this scholarship support administered by GMD.
Scholarship applicants should meet the following criteria;
- Should be female and of Ugandan Nationality.
- Should be a first year student admitted at Makerere University Main Campus for academic year 2023/2024 under the Direct Entry scheme.
- Should be from a genuinely disadvantaged socio-economic background.
- Those not admitted on Uganda Government sponsorship to any public university
- Must be willing to participate in the selection process as shall be determined by the GMD scholarship committee.
All applications shall be deemed complete only if they contain the following attachments;
- ‘O’ and ‘A’ level academic documents.
- Three passport size photographs.
- A copy of an applicant’s birth certificate.
- In case of deceased parent(s), copy of death certificate(s)
- A hand drawn physical map of an applicant’s home residence with clear directions of how to get to that home from the nearest main road (indicate approximate distances in kilometers)
- A copy of the admission letter to Makerere University.
- The applicant must be able to pay for their feeding, accommodation and other learning necessities required by the University for the duration of the study period.
Interested and eligible applicants can pick application forms free of charge from the GMD Senate Building, Level 4, Room 402 or download a copy from the GMD website: https://gendermainstreaming.mak.ac.ug/
In case of any inquiries, please contact the Office Mobile Number +256 755 797 130 or Email director.gendermainstreaming@mak.ac.ug.
Note: The Application deadline is Friday, 25 August 2023 at 5:00pm.
The Makerere University Endowment Fund encourages all the eligible applicants to take advantage of this scholarship opportunity under the Gender Mainstreaming Directorate.
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