Rhodes Southern Africa Scholarships Programme 2021 for Postgraduate study at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Rhodes Southern Africa Scholarships Programme

Rhodes Southern Africa Scholarships Programme

Rhodes Southern Africa Scholarships Programme is the oldest (established 1903) international scholarship programme in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Administered by the Rhodes Trust in Oxford, the programme offers 100 fully-funded Scholarships each year for postgraduate study at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom – one of the world’s leading universities. Rhodes Scholarships are for young leaders of outstanding intellect and character who are motivated to engage with global challenges, committed to the service of others and show promise of becoming value-driven, principled leaders for the world’s future.

Application Deadline: 23:59 SAST, 15 August 2020

The Scholarships for these countries are administered from a regional secretariat based in Johannesburg.
There are:

• four Scholarships every year for applicants from South Africa-at-Large,
• one for applicants from KwaZulu-Natal,
• one for an applicant from one of: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and eSwatini, and
• one each for applicants of or from Diocesan College, Rondebosch; South African College School, Newlands; Paul Roos Gymnasium, Stellenbosch; and St Andrew’s College, Grahamstown (including their identified partner schools, which are listed here).

Countries, regions and schools Scholarships in Southern Africa are distributed as follows:

a. South Africa-at-Large Scholarships: You should apply to the committee (the “Regional Selection Committee”) in whose area you permanently live or in which you have received, or are currently receiving, any considerable part of your education. Save for KwaZulu-Natal as explained below, all successful candidates from Regional Selection Committees are sent to the South Africa-at-Large Selection Committee, for the final round of interviews.

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The South Africa-at-Large Selection Committee selects successful candidates and recommends them to the Rhodes Trust, which
ultimately makes the scholarship awards. There are four regional Selection Committees, namely:
i. Eastern Cape and Free State;
ii. KwaZulu-Natal;
iii. Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North-West; and
iv. Western Cape and Northern Cape.

b. KwaZulu-Natal Scholarship: You may apply for the KwaZulu-Natal Scholarship if you live permanently or have received, or are currently receiving, a considerable part of your education in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). The KZN Selection Committee may make one direct recommendation (similar to those of the South Africa-at-Large Selection Committee) to the Rhodes Trust each year, and also acts as a Regional Selection Committee.

c. Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) Scholarship (BLMNS): You may apply to the BLMNS Selection Committee if you fulfil the citizenship or legal residence require.

(ii) Candidates who are medical graduates in order to complete their compulsory internship and/or community
service:

1. Candidates who have completed an MBBCh or an MBChB degree, must not have reached their 28th birthday on 1 October 2021 (which means they must have been born after 1 October 1993).
2. This is to enable these candidates to complete their compulsory medical internship and community service before going to Oxford.
3. Candidates should apply either during their second year of internship, or during their community service year, provided that they meet the age requirement in (c)(ii)(1) above.
4. Candidates that can apply in their community service year (without breaching the age requirement in (c)(ii)(1) above) are encouraged to do so. For candidates that have to (in order to comply with (c)(ii)(1)) or choose to apply in their second year of internship, the Rhodes Scholarship National Secretariat will endeavour, as it has done in past years, to reach agreement with the National Department of Health to allow those medical doctors awarded the Rhodes Scholarship to complete their community service year requirement by September, in the year after they apply, and before going to Oxford in October 2021. While the Secretariat will endeavour to reach such dispensations, the granting of such cannot be guaranteed.

Selection Procedure

a. Selection for the Rhodes Scholarship is made without regard to financial means.

b. Selection for the Rhodes Scholarship is made without regard to marital status, race, ethnic origin, colour, gender, religion, sexual orientation, social background, disability, caste or other irrelevant distinction. The provision of such information in the ‘Outreach’ section of the application form is optional, but helps us to ensure that our selection processes are fair and that our outreach efforts are effective; those involved in selection will only see summary statistics of these responses in an anonymised format that cannot be tracked back to the individual.

c. You are applying for a Rhodes Scholarship for entry to the University of Oxford in October 2021; the scholarship cannot be deferred.

d. The Rhodes Scholarship is confirmed only upon successful admission to the University of Oxford.

e. No selection will be made if a sufficiently qualified candidate cannot be found.

f. The decision of the Selection Committee is final.

Application Procedure

a. You can apply online from 01 June 2020 at http://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/scholarships/apply via the scholarships tab.

b. You must submit your application online, with all supporting documents, by 23:59 SAST, 15 August 2020.

c. In preparation for making your application, you should read carefully the general information, particularly that held on the Scholarships tab, on the Rhodes website, the Conditions of Tenure for the Rhodes Scholarship, the information in this document and the graduate admissions pages of the University of Oxford: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate.

d. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a social engagement and a final interview. You must be available to attend both, in person, as no accommodations can be made on date and time, or mode, of these events. Interviews will be held in the region to which you have applied, all interviews will have taken place by the end of November.


The Selection Committees for KZN, BLMNS, regions and schools, meet in October/November annually. The South Africaat-Large selections are usually held on the last weekend of November. No candidate will be selected without an interview.

Reasonable travel expenses to the designated Selection Committee for the purposes of interviews will be paid. The Trust will not be responsible for the cost of overseas travel. Accommodation within South Africa will be provided, where necessary.

e. All applicants will be emailed with the outcome of their application. We regret that we are unable to provide feedback to applicants or finalists who are unsuccessful in their applications. The Selection Committees’ decisions are final.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Rhodes Southern Africa Scholarships Programme 2021