It's pretty much the same as 'convertible loan' scholarship. Less painful if you have CGPA of 3.5 and above is one thing. Another thing is the "attachment" to certain business entity that you have to (according to the clauses as termed in the contract) for x year(s), etc...

Mine was from a private institution and was lucky(?) not to be attached to the so called entity upon graduation. I ended up working 6 months in the private sector before even receiving my degree.

Anyway, kudos to Thread Starter for sharing your experiences as it'll definitely give a heads-up for some out there.

This post has been edited by Joey Christensen: Jun 30 2020, 06:16 PM

At least you have 4 years. Mine is 10 years.

At the very least, the company is quite alright. Pay is reasonable and benefits are better than average. The bosses actually appreciate my talent and work so far.

The only thing I wish the company would do is focus more in training and career development, coz right now, the company seems to be the kind of place where people who had been in the peak of their careers prefer to take a pay cut and do a less stressful job with similar responsibility. My boss was from the Big4 before she moved in to her current role.

Not that much require guarantors, I'd say maybe 50:50

ultimately, even if you don't want to work for them and have to pay your fees back, that precious line that you can put in your resume " XXX scholarship recipient" will open up a lot more opportunities for you

my personal experience, applying as a research student to overseas uni, the professors will usually lower the entry requirement for those that are industry sponsored or by their home country, compared to having to allocate fund from their research grant or ask for a fee waive from the uni.

even if you don't like it, take the bond/ scholarship, and pay it back, it will still bring a lot of benefits

Many companies (NOT EVERY) which offers undergraduate bonded "scholarship" or some form of conditional financial aid are simply fishing for cheap talents to be held onto for the duration of the agreement. They have no capacity to retain high flyers with their vision, mission, culture or remuneration, hence the "scholarship" bond. The "scholarship" are always dangled in front of hungry high performers after their SPM or Pre-U, knowing nothing about employment. Locking in this employee resource early confirms cheap, efficient, high-performance labour for the company in the future. The need to do this comes from their failure to attract graduated talents or experienced hires, so it should be easily imagined how is it like to work there. Besides, the companies get to claim free publicity, declare expenses as CSR and escape high corporate taxes by naming this scheme as "scholarship". In the end it boils down to the company maximising their fund's use, at the expense of high flying graduates' career future. If a bonded "scholarship" graduated employee wants to quit, he has to pay back with interest, which is additional income, free or minimally taxed to the company.

Real scholarship awards are meant to reward the deserving with their exceptional talents, and to aid the underprivileged community. If there is a bond, it is just a loan which is repayed with time compounded into a dull career. Sadly, companies misuse the term "scholarship" as a financial instrument to mislead young blood while raking in returns with an almost nonexistent risk.