UP alumna receives prestigious UK Commonwealth Scholarship

Ms Estine Clasen, an alumna of the University of Pretoria (UP), has been awarded a UK Commonwealth Scholarship for the 2017 intake. She is currently pursuing an MSc in Biodevices at the University of Southampton in the UK.

Ms Clasen started studying towards a BSc (Veterinary Biology) in 2009, but changed her course to a BSc (Biotechnology), which she obtained in 2011. While in her final year, she also completed a year-long mentorship programme at UP’s Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), where she says she enjoyed learning about the day-to-day activities of working in natural sciences. The following year, she enrolled for a BEng (Electronic Engineering) at UP, and obtained this qualification in 2016. Her final-year project for this second degree, which was done in collaboration with the CSIR, afforded her the opportunity to work in their laboratories with exciting technologies and equipment. This contributed to her wanting to continue her studies, combining biological sciences and electronic engineering. ‘My knowledge about biotechnology, biochemistry, genetics and microbiology, in combination with electronic engineering skills, puts me in a unique position to understand biological problems in depth and find engineering solutions for these problems,’ she explains.

She applied for the Commonwealth Scholarship, with UP as her nominating agency, and says that her study leader from 2016, Dr Trudi-Heleen Joubert, supported her every step of the way. ‘I approached Dr Joubert in 2015 to find out more about her research group and doing my final-year project with her. Even back then, I told her that I would ideally like to do my master’s in the UK. She has supported me in the process of my applications at universities in the UK, as well as in my bursary applications.’

Ms Clasen describes her time at UP as an interesting journey, especially in so far as making the transition from natural sciences to engineering, which she says differed much more than she expected. ‘It wasn’t always easy, but if I could do it all over again, I’d follow the same educational trajectory. I believe that every choice in life makes a difference, and we have to decide whether the difference we make each day will be positive or negative. Not choosing to do something is also a choice, often with the same consequences as doing something drastic. I try to make each day matter by simply moving forward, even if some days it is with minute steps, towards my dreams and having a positive influence. When I look back over my years at UP, I can now see that every day did matter, and that I wouldn’t have received this new opportunity without working towards this goal every day for the past few years, step by step,’ she says.

The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan is one of the largest and most prestigious scholarship schemes for international study in the world. Since its establishment in 1959, approximately 30 000 individuals have benefited, and around 25 000 of these have received awards funded by the UK government and managed by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK. The Commonwealth Master’s Scholarships provide recipients with 12 months’ support towards the completion of a full-time, taught postgraduate qualification at an eligible UK university, and also cover students’ air fares to the UK and back home, tuition and examination fees, a personal maintenance allowance to cover their accommodation and living costs and, if applicable, a grant towards the expenses involved in preparing a thesis or dissertation. On expiry of the scholarship, South African students are required to return home and remain in this country for a period of at least five years.

Recipients of these prestigious scholarships must meet stringent selection criteria, with particular emphasis placed on the academic merit of candidates, the quality of their research proposals and the likely impact of the proposed work on the development of their home countries. Candidates are also responsible for securing admission to their preferred institutions in the UK before submitting their scholarship applications.

Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowships in the UK for applicants from developing Commonwealth countries, such as South Africa, are funded by the UK Department for International Development, with the aim of contributing to the UK’s international development aims and wider overseas interests by supporting excellence in UK higher education and sustaining the Commonwealth principles.

Ms Leanne van Zyl, Postgraduate Scholarship Manager at UP, coordinates the advertising, administration and preliminary selection of applications for these awards. The preliminary list of successful candidates from UP is forwarded to Universities South Africa (USAF) for the national selection process, after which a final list of candidates is submitted to the Foundation for final selection.

Click here for more information about international scholarship opportunities available to UP students.

Source University of Pretoria