The Madhvani Foundation has released the list of names of students who have been awarded scholarships in the 2011-2012 academic year. The 138 students will benefit from the over Shs550 million made available by the foundation and will be paid towards university tuition fees for the duration of their courses.

Announcing the release of the list in a press statement Henry Kyemba the Chairman of the Foundations Education subcommittee said “this is the 9^th and by far the largest donation that the Board has made since the education bourse was resurrected in 2003, we are confident that these funds will go a long way towards improving the lives of these students who have all provided compelling cases for assistance. We wish them all the best of luck and implore them to take their studies very seriously.”

Commenting on the demographic distribution of the scholarships Mr. Iyengar, the Board Secretary said “I am pleased to announce that the scholarships have been distributed evenly across the country having the East taking 41 , Buganda 39, West 32 and North 26, with more male students scooping awards than their female counterparts.” He continued “the selection process was transparent and fair, the committee was very strict throughout the whole process and all documents were thoroughly scrutinized before approval. We did not come across any cases of misinformation, the students who received the awards were simply the ones with the best academic performance and with the greatest need. We would have loved to have given out more scholarships as there were many other students with compelling case but this was not possible given budgetary restrictions.”

Highlighting the Foundation’s commitment towards higher education in Uganda Mr. Kyemba noted that the amount of money the Foundation has donated towards the bourse since the fund was restarted in 2003 now stands at over 2.3 Billion which is the largest single private donation towards the education sector in Uganda over the period.

Advising students who wish to apply for scholarships from the Foundation in the forthcoming 2012/2013 academic year he advised that if they are undergraduate students they should study hard to ensure they maintain a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of not less than 2.2 after their first year of study and that they should look out for advertisements announcing the launch of the selection process in the first quarter of 2012. Alternatively they can always visit the website www.madhvanifoundation.com at any time for more information.

In conclusion Mr. Kyemba congratulated all the candidates that received awards and encouraged them to take advantage of the opportunity they have been given, by studying hard so they can be successful in their studies and become productive members of Ugandan society.

The Madhvani Foundation was established in 1962 on the eve of Uganda independence to honour the vision of the founder of the Madhvani group the late Muljibhai Prabhudas Madhvani. In 2003 the Board set up the University education trust with the principal objective being the promotion of scientific and technical education for the betterment of the people of Uganda. Since 2003 the trust has educated over 715 University students and provided scholarships worth over 2.3 Billion Uganda Shillings.