There are some pretty significant new bursaries for Brandon University students as of this year with a total of $330,000. The bursaries will be split into two categories. There will be one group of these bursaries for Graduate students who have financial need. They will be worth up to 10,000 each and there will be up to five students from the four facilities and the School of Music all benefiting from these awards, which means a potential 25 awards.
There will also be a General Bursary for students in any BU program. Each one of these awards will be worth up to $5,000. These will also be given on the basis of financial need. The news article from Brandon University did not state how many would be available.
So where did this large amount of money come from? According to Brandon University’s news release it was a part of the Manitoba Scholarship and Bursaries Initiative. They were “created to realize the benefits of changes to the Manitoba Scholarship and Bursaries Initiative (MSBI). Through the MSBI the Government of Manitoba contributes provincial support to supplement donations that fund scholarships and bursaries at post-secondary institutions in the province.” (From BU’s news release).
For the current academic year, the selection process will be different than it normally will be. Each graduate program will make recommendations for who they think should receive the bursary and the General Bursary will be given based on applications that were already received for the 2017/2018 academic year. This benefits students who applied and declared financial need but did not get support this academic year.
In future years, the general bursaries will be available for students to apply for online, while the Grad bursaries will still be based on recommendations. The General Bursaries will be open to apply for online for the 2018/2019 school year very soon, and the deadline to apply is June 1st, 2018. Once these scholarships are added to the database, students will be able to search “MSBI” to find them.
Scholarships and bursaries are awesome because they take a lot of the financial stress out of being a student and leave you in less debt at the end of your degree. They also allow students to focus more on school, and less on working during the academic year. Take full advantage of the scholarships and bursaries offered to BU students, and apply for as many as you can!