Maize Trust Bursary Scheme
The Maize Trust has been awarding bursaries to MSc and PhD students since 2007. On average nine post-graduate students receive bursaries from the Trust every year. The Trust endeavours to award bursaries to students from all walks of life, but with a specific focus on their abilities and fields of study.
Excellent researcher capacity and is being created with this initiative. Unfortunately this is not utilised fully by the industry in that some of the students are experiencing problems in obtaining suitable employment once their studies are completed. For this reason the Trust would, in principle, be prepared to give consideration to applications from research and industry organisations to utilise these students. This could be structured for a period of one year, after the completion of their studies, on an internship basis, with a view to possible permanent employment. Employment after the internship period will obviously not be compulsory, but should be done on merit while taking into consideration the suitability and performance of each intern.
Research institutions and industry organisations are herewith invited to indicate to the Trust their interest in hosting such an internship programme. Such an indication should include a proposal on the contribution that would annually be required from the Trust, the contribution that such institution will be prepared to make to a programme of this nature, the specific study fields that are of interest to that institution, as well as recommendations on the manner in which the programme could be managed. Once the Trust has considered these proposals and is in a position to determine the industry’s interest, it will take a decision on the operations and funding of the programme. A list of MSc and PhD bursary students of the Trust, together with their study fields, will annually be provided to interested institutions and organisations. No specific amount has as yet been allocated by the Maize Trust for a possible internship programme, as this will entirely depend on the interest and involvement of industry.
Please submit your above proposals to the Trust before or on 30 April 2010.
Students are invited to apply for bursaries to further their studies from the Maize Trust. The most important conditions of the bursaries are as follows:
- Students must be South African citizens and busy with fulltime study.
- The bursaries are only for Masters and Doctoral studies.
- The field of study must be relevant to the South African maize industry.
- The topic for the thesis must be approved by the Maize Trust.
- The Trust requires a curriculum vitae, the full past study particulars, a short summary of the intended thesis and a copy of the ID of every applicant.
- A mentor for the study programme must be nominated and, together with the university where the study will be undertaken, must be approved by the Maize Trust.
- Students will be expected to work in the South African maize industry for a period that is the same length as the period for which a bursary was awarded.
- The total bursary amount is R55 226 per year for two years for MSc students and R66 853.50 per year for three years for PhD students.
For full details of the bursary agreement, please contact L&L Agricultural Services, the Administrators of the Maize Trust.
