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Achievements & Success Stories | Maluta Nnditshedzeni Eric

A note of thanks

Maluta Nnditshedzeni Eric - University of Bath

I was born in a remote rural village called Mafukani, which falls under Mutale Municipality in Limpopo Province. I was born in a family of six siblings and I was the fifth born. My father was the only bread winner in the house. When I passed Grade 12, it became difficult for my father to pay the bills for all of us to study at university. At this time the first born was working and also trying to help my father to pay the bills, but it was difficult as I was going to be the fourth person in the family studying at the university. I was supposed to wait until my other brothers had finished studying so that I could start.

One of my brothers advised me that it would be better for me to go with him to the university and explain our situation. At the start of my first year (1998) I went straight to the NSFAS (TEFSA) administrator at the University of Limpopo (Turfloop campus) and explained my situation. The administrator was so helpful and assisted me to fill in the forms. Eventually I was happy to note that there was money available for disadvantaged students who could not even manage to raise the registration fees. The minimum requirement was to raise R1 000 for registration, which we had available.

I started using NSFAS from my first year (1998) until my third year to complete my BSc Degree in Physics and Mathematics. In 2000, I graduated and then registered for a BSc Honours (Physics) in 2001 and at this time I received the NRF honours bursary.

After finishing my honours in 2001, I then joined the University of Venda (Physics Department) in 2002 to work as a Laboratory Technician. I started paying back the NSFAS loan and finished paying back the full amount in October 2008. The major advantage of the NSFAS loan is that if one is performing well academically only 60% remains as a loan and the remaining 40% is converted into a bursary. Hence one has to pay only 60 % of the loan each year provided all the registered courses are passed.

I registered for MSc in renewable energy in 2003 at the University of Venda and completed it in 2004. After completing my MSc my dream was to study further and complete my PhD at a different institution, as my undergraduate and MSc were all from within the Limpopo province. I applied for funding and managed to get the Ford Foundation Fellowship to pursue my PhD wherever I needed to. I was one of the first few pure science students to get this fund. I started my PhD research at the University of Bath, United Kingdom, in October 2007 and finalised its requirements in December 2010. The degree will be confirmed when I graduate in July 2011.

As I have achieved all of this, despite being born in a remote rural area in Limpopo, my message to other learners out there is that they should never give up on their dreams. In education what matters most are your hard work and end of year results. It does not matter where you come from.

Thanks to NSFAS for the support, without which I would not have come this far in my academic and professional career.

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