By Fakir Hassen IANS,
Durban : The University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) has become the third major academic institution in South Africa to receive scholarships for post-graduate studies from Tata Africa.
At a function following the launch of the Gandhi-Luthuli Chair of Peace Studies at UKZN on Thursday, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma joined the Vice-Chancellor of UKZN, Prof Malegapuru Makgoba, and the Managing Director of Tata Africa, Raman Dhawan, to hand over the scholarships to eight students.
“We started giving these scholarships about three years back, starting with Wits University (in Johannesburg), to whom we have given by today 39 scholarships,” Dhawan said.
“This year we have given scholarships to two more universities. We gave 10 scholarships to the University of Stellenbosch (near Cape Town) a few weeks ago and now we have given these ten scholarships to UKZN.
“I am told that so far, only eight of these scholarships have been awarded, because UKZN has done a very rigorous process of selection for the students.”
Pledging Tata’s support to continue with the scholarships at UKZN, Dhawan repeated the sentiments expressed in earlier addresses by Sharma and African National Congress President Jacob Zuma that the recipients had to give back to society.
“If you want to uplift yourself, you must uplift the society in which you operate, so give me a promise that you will uplift your society when you become the leaders in the various fields you will be going into.”
Offering advice to the students, Dhawan called on them to adopt Tata’s principles which included integrity: “We must conduct ourselves with honesty, fairness and transparency; everything that we do must stand the test of public scrutiny; we must be caring, show respect and humanity to all our colleagues and customers around the world and always work for the benefit of the communities we serve. ”
Dhawan related a story about how one of the first young recipients at Wits University suspected that there was an ulterior motive to Tata’s scholarships when she asked him: “What’s the catch?”, especially since most companies require some sort of commitment when they complete their studies, such as working for the company for a period.
“There are no strings attached to these scholarships. This scholarship is just to ensure that you do well academically; that you concentrate on your studies and that your other financial things are taken care of.
“You don’t have to work for Tata once you finish your studies – you can go and work for anybody. This is a contribution to the community – if you would like to work for Tata, you are of course most welcome to come and work for Tata.”
A representative for the recipients said many of them had huge financial burdens and constraints and would not have been able to complete their post-graduate studies if the Tata scholarships had not come to their rescue.