Call for Applications: 2025/26 Beit Trust Postgraduate Scholarships for study at British and South African Universities

Ednah Carrick January 28, 2025

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Closing Date: 7 February 2025

Call for Applications: 2025/26 Beit Trust Postgraduate Scholarships for study at British and South African Universities

Beit Trust Postgraduate Scholarships

In 2024, the Trust awarded 21 Beit Trust Postgraduate Scholarships at British and South African universities, by means of generous academic partnerships with leading institutions. Beit Trust Scholarships are for Postgraduate degrees only. The Trust do not provide scholarships for undergraduate work and its postgraduate focus is on Masters Degrees. The Trust do not offer scholarships for Ph.D. research ab initio. Only under exceptional circumstances, and for Beit scholars of outstanding merit, will the Trustees consider extending support to Ph.D. level.

Eligibility Requirements

By Act of Parliament, the Beit Trust supports ONLY applicants who are nationals of Zambia, Zimbabwe or Malawi, who are permanent residents, live there and/or intend to return to their country after their studies.

The following criteria are all considered when assessing your application:

Academic Capability: the trust look first at those with a Distinction or Merit (Upper Second Class) in their undergraduate degree. Those with Lower Second Class or Credit/Pass degrees, while not ineligible to apply, will struggle to beat the competition. The Trust understand, however, that some medical degrees are not graded in this way.
Those who already hold a postgraduate degree are likely only in the most exceptional cases to be considered for a Beit Postgraduate Scholarship. The Trust usually decides to offer the opportunity to worthy candidates who do not already have a postgraduate qualification.
Professional Work Experience: important in the award of a scholarship. This should be relevant to the proposed field of study. As a guide, at least three years’ work experience, backed by a positive employer’s reference, can boost an application. The Trust values work experience in itself, but also as an index to leadership potential in your chosen field.
Voluntary Work: the application form asks about this, as evidence of pro bono engagement with your community. This is not however essential, and is not in itself a sufficient alternative to professional work experience.
Leadership Qualities: these are important to the Trust, as an indication of your ability to contribute to economic and social uplift, to the benefit of the people of your country.
References: these help us make a rounded assessment of you on paper. Referees are most effective when they can point to evidence-based examples of leadership, achievement and professional potential beyond the ordinary.
Relevance of your proposed course of study: the Trust’s focus is on developmental academic disciplines: i.e. those which contribute to the advancement of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi in fields such as medicine, health, engineering, education, economic growth, agriculture and conservation. These categories are not exhaustive. The Trust does not consider applications for MBAs.
Return to your own country: your stated willingness to do this is important.
Choice of university: you must apply only within the trust partner universities, listed in the next section. Applying for more than one provides a better chance of selection.
Doctors and Vets should have completed 18 months of internship and at least a one-year posting in country. Experience in rural practice is especially welcome.
The Trust cannot consider applications from those who have already begun a course.

Beit Joint University Partnerships

The Beit Trust has partnership agreements with the universities below. This enables the Trust to share costs, and to increase the number of scholarships it can fund. For this reason, only applicants with acceptances from the universities listed below will be eligible for Beit Trust Scholarships. Applicants must first apply to, and be accepted by, a Beit Partner University before applying to the Trust for a scholarship.

The universities offer a one-year taught Master’s in the UK; and a two-year taught Master’s in South Africa. Both have a research dimension and the applicant must have obtained Honours (First or Upper Second or equivalent) at undergraduate level.

The following partnerships allow us to award joint scholarships: e.g. Beit-Cambridge, Beit-UCT, etc., and may change from time to time. Please note that applications to St Andrews (2 places only) are solely for Computer Science; while applications to Strathclyde (1 place only) are solely for Engineering disciplines. The Trust is pleased to announce a new partnership with the University of Pretoria for the new South African academic year beginning January 2025.

To mark the Trust’s long association with Rhodes University, Trustees have agreed that the award there should be called The Alfred Beit Scholarship at Rhodes, to be held by The Alfred Beit Scholar. The application process for this will be the same as for all other Beit scholarships.