Malaysia gives scholarships to Ugandans

Officials from Universiti Teknologi Petronas speaking to Ndejje Engineering students (Picture by David Lukiiza)

Malaysia has given five Ugandan Universities 20 scholarships for its students to study petroleum related courses.

This was revealed by Alex Kwitonda Bigira, the first secretary at the Uganda High Commission, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Kwitonda said this during the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Ndejje University and Universiti Teknologi Petronas officials last week.

Kwitonda said all the five universities are given two scholarships and the rest will be given to the ministry of education to send students who qualify for the opportunity.

Other Universities to receive the opportunity are Makerere, Mbarara, Uganda Islamic University and Uganda Petroleum Institute, Kigumba.

Ndejje University Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Eriab Lugujju, said the opportunity has come in the right time because the university had started offering the Engineering courses a few years ago.

"This is an opportunity for our students to grab and enroll for Ph.D. and master's programmes in petroleum because Uganda is still fertile with Oil," Lugujju said.

"Now, it is upon your students to apply for the two scholarships because everything has been given to you free of charge," Lugujju told the engineering students.

"One of the University's visions by 2040 is to put much emphasis in science and engineering as well as innovations, therefore this memorandum of understanding means a lot not only to Ndejje University but also to the entire country," Lugujju added.

"The university also needs to grow staff in line of Ph.D. and masters, therefore, we hope for our lecturers to apply for exchange programs in order to enhance their academic documents," Lugujju added.

He adds that Uganda has for long had a challenge with human resource. So we are encouraging our students to take on these opportunities.

In his speech, Prof. Azrai HJ Abdullah registrar at Universiti Teknologi Petronas said the opportunity is open to engineering students as well as lecturers who want to specialize in petroleum.

"We are here strictly for five Universities and we want to give this opportunity to postgraduates including lectures with a GPA of 3.00 to 4.00," he says

Azrai adds that Universities in Uganda are free to send their students on an exchange program at no cost.

"We have offered Ugandan government ten more scholarships through the ministry of education to help in assessing applicants," he says.

Azrai adds that over 50 countries had applied for Ph.D. and Masters programs I Petroleum in Malaysia, however, Uganda had had no students.

How to apply

Kwitonda says applications forms can be picked from the Universiti Teknologi Petronas web site, however, this should be backed by the support of your home University.

The same can as well be done for students who wish to apply for the exchange programme.

He adds that the embassy will be in full support of any student who wishes to apply.

Benefits

If one qualifies for any of the programmes, they will be given tuition.

"Master's students will be paid $1,300 (sh4.8m) a month, while Ph.D. students will be paid $1,600 (sh5.9m)," Azrai says.