Request for Proposals: Mandela Rhodes Scholarship (Africa)

To benefit from their programme you must be curious about doing the personal, internal work of leadership. This means a commitment to developing self-awareness by engaging with difficult parts of yourself, an openness to learning from the diversity and differences in your cohort, and a willingness to explore and embrace complexity within yourself, others, and the systems around you.

Focus Areas

• Leadership
  • Do you aspire to be a visionary leader who has moral authority? Do you see leadership as more than just personal ambition – as a way to pursue the advancement of equality and freedom, human rights and human dignity? And do you want to guide and inspire others to reach their full potential?
• Reconciliation
  • Do you believe that reconciliation – combined with reparation – is the key to harnessing an imperfect past to develop a more just world? And are you prepared to start the process by looking at your own internal landscape?
• Education
  • Do you have excellent academic results but believe that your education should not only benefit you but make a difference for others? And do you agree that intellectual excellence must be accompanied by character and a rounded personality?
• Entrepreneurship
  • Do you want to see Africa take its rightful place as an equal and competitive presence in the global world? Have you demonstrated individual effort, innovation and creativity to this end?

Duration

• They will fund your degree to a strict maximum of two years, with no exceptions allowed.
• Students who receive the Scholarship for their Honours degree receive one year of funding, while Masters students will receive one or two years of funding.

Eligible Costs

• Tuition and registration fees as set by your university or institution
• A study materials allowance as set by the MRF
• Accommodation and meal allowances as set by the MRF
• A medical aid allowance as set by the MRF
• A personal allowance as set by the MRF
• Research and conferencing grants can be made available on request
• Economy-class flights for international scholars from their home countries to their institutions at the start and end of their studies

Ineligible Costs

• The Mandela Rhodes Foundation does not pay for your application fees for university, or for the accreditation of your existing degrees through SAQA, which may be an entry requirement to your course.
• They also do not provide financial support for visa applications.

Eligibility Criteria

• They look for young leaders who aspire to the principles and who have demonstrated the potential to live them out.
• If you are between the ages of 19 and 29 in the year of applying, you are eligible. As long as you are under the age of 30 at the time you take up the scholarship, you are eligible to apply.
• Students who are citizens of an African country, no matter where they are currently living or studying, are eligible.
• The Mandela Rhodes Scholarship is for postgraduate study (Honours and Masters degrees) in any field.

For more information, visit Mandela Rhodes Foundation.