Mandela Rhodes Scholarship

The scholarship covers the core costs of a one-year Honours or two-year Master's degree in any field at a recognised South African institution. Tuition and registration fees are paid directly to the university; allowances for accommodation and meals, study materials, research, medical aid and personal costs are paid to the scholar twice a year. International scholars are flown economy class from home to their university at the start of the degree and back at the end, and research and conference grants can be requested.

It does not pay university application fees, the verification of existing degrees by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), passports or visa costs. Scholars must organise and pay for their own accommodation from the allowance, in a residence or privately.

Every scholar takes part in a compulsory leadership development programme, delivered mainly through week-long residential workshops with the rest of the class: three in the first year and, for two-year Master's students, two in the second. The first year concentrates on learning, the second on putting it into practice through design thinking modules and a group project that ends with a pitch to a panel.

Scholars are placed in regional pod groups that meet three times a year, and each project group is offered an adviser from the alumni community. The Foundation describes leadership as beginning with inner transformation, and it expects scholars to be ready to reflect on themselves and to learn from the differences within their class.

Applicants must be young Africans aged between 19 and 29 in the year they apply, able to study in English at postgraduate level, and must have, by 1 January of the scholarship year, an undergraduate degree with excellent results: above 70% or an upper second class. They must also have shown leadership on campus or in their community.

The Foundation looks for people who aspire to be ethical leaders committed to equality, freedom and human dignity in Africa, and who see their education as something that should benefit others. It asks applicants to read its statement of the characteristics it seeks in a scholar.

The scholarship must be taken up in the year it is offered and cannot be deferred. Scholars must secure admission to their university by January, attend every part of the leadership programme (travel abroad, even for research, is not accepted as a reason for absence), keep high standards of work and conduct, and hold no other scholarship. Paid work is limited to 12 hours a week.