e-Gov Project Director, Mr. Sitiveni Nabuka present e-Scholarship to PSC Management

As part of the E-Governance project, students and members of the public will be able to apply for scholarships online through the eScholarship system that will be launched by the end of July 2009.

Applicants will be able to monitor their scholarship status from the moment they submit their applications online to when they receive confirmation on whether they have been awarded a scholarship.

Notification emails on application submissions, interview time, venue and date, award of scholarship, non-award of scholarships will be sent to applicants as each process is completed. Thus one of the very important items that applicants need to have is an email address.

The move towards an automated system of scholarship processing is a welcome change for the Scholarship Unit. However, it is anticipated that there will be some teething problems in the initial stages of this new online system. Close consultations have been held with the ITC staff to address any challenges.

The staff has been attending User Application Training sessions at ITC along with colleagues from the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs and Multi Ethnic Affairs.

As scholarship applicants enter their personal and academic details, there is an automatic link to the database of the Birth, Deaths, and Registration and the Ministry of Education. There will be no room for falsification.

The details in the application form that applicants used to submit manually has been adapted onto the online application form. The details are the same with the only difference being that rather than submit their applications manually to the PSC Scholarship Unit office, the applicants will be submitting their applications electronically online.

One of the challenges that  applicants would face would be embracing this new form of application submission. However, assistance will be provided by the Scholarship and ITC staff and those at the new Government Call Centre for those who will have problems submitting their electronic applications.

Candidates are encouraged to access and submit electronic form from the  website:   www.egov.gov.fj