One of the reasons you don’t see a lot of information about scholarships about Zimbabwe on Revision.co.zw is that sadly there are not a lot of scholarships available to Zimbabwean students despite what the rest of the internet will have you believe.
Over the years a lot of school leavers have fallen victim to various scams where they are promised easy scholarships to Universities outside Zimbabwe by several organisers. The latest scandal involves scammers claiming to be from the Office of President and Cabinet (OPC).
The advert circulating on social media that requires applicants to submit their applications online to [email protected] did not originate from our offices and its content is mischievous as it is a plagiarised document from parts of our previous advertisement done in 2019
OPC’s Christ Mushowe
Protect yourself by being vigilant
You need to do your due diligence or risk falling prey and losing money. In worst-case scenarios some have even fallen into traps set by human traffickers and are turned into slaves in foreign countries.
Here are some precautions you can take:
- Most institutions administer scholarships directly so there is no need for an organiser or some other intermediary to do the administration process
- Scholarship representatives shouldn’t be using Gmail.com or other public emails. Universities and colleges can certainly afford to run their own email systems
- Fake facilitators often ask you to pay some sort of fee eventually. These expenses are often justified one way or another. Real scholarships normally don’t require you to pay anything. If you need a scholarship it means you are facing financial difficulties right.
- If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is
- Take time to Google the institution referenced in the scholarship, most scholarships are attached to a specific college or University. A lot of the open “any school” you want scholarships are fake
- Try to contact the Admissions Office referenced in the advert and see if the scholarship offer is real. Scammers will probably dissuade you from doing this claiming it will lower your chances of getting the scholarship somehow. That is absolute nonsense
- Most fake scholarship ads claim to be for US colleges. Contact the US Embassy in person or on social media and you will most likely get a prompt reply
- You can make calls to most US colleges for free! Yes even from Zimbabwe. Just install Google Hangouts dialer and call their admissions office to verify
- Most Eastern European countries are trafficking hubs. Again use your common sense. Many students have fallen victim in the past and ended up stranded. Ukraine is enthralled in the Civil War, is that the best place to get your degree? Like really?
