IOB Student Scholarships

Project Objectives

• To pay the course fees and costs for students studying Bachelors degrees in business or ICT.
• To enable students from low-income rural families (with a focus on coffee farming families) to access higher education.
• To provide greater opportunities for students from low-income rural families to gain employment.

Why is this Project Needed?

• High rate of youth unemployment
• High rates of poverty
• High cost for rural students studying in Dili

What will the funding provide?

The funding will provide 10 new scholarships per year and pay the $300/year course fees and costs for the full 3 years of rural students’ Bachelor degrees.

Year	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
	10 new scholarships			10 new scholarships
		10 new scholarships			10 new scholarships
			10 new scholarships			10 new scholarships
Funds required	$3000	$6000	$9000	$9000	$9000	$9000	$9000	$9000

Eligibility Criteria:

• Students must be commencing study towards a Bachelor’s degree in the IOB.
• Students must be from outside Dili, and are from a low-income family.
• Students must be the first in their family to study at a tertiary institution.
• Continuation of the scholarship from one semester to the next, and from one year to the next, is dependent on the student achieving acceptable academic grades in their previous semester of study.

How does our Partner Organisation work with the Community?

The Institute of Business is a large higher education institution with an average of 2500 students a year studying diploma and bachelor courses in economics, business and ICT. 80% of IOB graduates have found employment in their area of study.

The Institute has four departments – Finance Management, Public Management, Accounting, and Information Management.

How the scholarship program works

• Potential students are informed of the availability of the scholarships and the process for applying, when they receive information about enrolling in an IOB course.
• Students submit their application in writing by the application closing date, outlining why they want to study at IOB, what their ambitions are after completing study, and explaining the financial situation of their family. 
• The scholarship program is reviewed each year, before the next round of new scholarships is offered.
• IOB staff process applications and check that applicants meets the eligibility criteria.
• IOB staff select the students to receive the scholarships from among the list of eligible applicants.
• Tradewinds Overseas Aid Fund is notified of the names of students who have been selected and the criteria for selection. Each year the academic progress of each scholarship recipient is reported to Tradewinds Overseas Aid Fund.

Why is the Project Important to Tradewinds?

Tradewinds is supporting this project because it is focused on giving opportunities to young people from poor coffee farming families. The graduates of the scholarship program will have vastly improved chances of finding employment which gives them a liveable income. That means incomes which can help the graduates and their families overcome malnutrition, which is a problem for approximately 40% of the population of Timor Leste. 

Donate to the Project