UKZN Undergraduate Merit Scholarships

UKZN awards scholarships and merit bursaries to recognise and reward academic excellence, under the University's Policy on Scholarships (approved by Council, 18 March 2013). Funding runs from first undergraduate entry through to final postgraduate exit and is meant to attract high-calibre students, retain them in current and future programmes, and reward past and current excellence, in the context of the University's transformation goals.

The Policy distinguishes a "scholarship" (an award for past meritorious academic performance at the highest level, which can carry additional conditions such as gender) from a "merit bursary" (made mainly to postgraduate students where academic merit decisions are needed to distinguish candidates for particular award categories). At undergraduate level the named awards include the Vice-Chancellor's Scholarships (the top 5 students in each College, awarded in second year to the top first-year undergraduate), the Lawrence and Constance Robinson Scholarship (1st-placed undergraduate), the Brenda M Gourley Prestige Scholarship (2nd-placed), the Prestige Scholarship (3rd-placed) and the general UKZN Undergraduate Scholarship.

Governance sits with the University Scholarships Committee, a committee of Senate, with College representatives taking part in selection at College level; the Scholarships Office within Student Funding administers payment and record-keeping and reports annually to Senate and Council on all awards made.

Selection draws on each candidate's full academic record: every module passed and failed, its credit rating, class size, final mark, class of pass and top mark in the class. Students are ranked using a Consolidated Performance Index (CPI) that combines a cardinal mark with an ordinal class ranking, generated for the most recent year of study, with the greatest weight placed on the current year while expecting consistent first-class performance in prior years; proxime accessit candidates are nominated where appropriate.