Question 1

What is Excel@Uni and what does your company do?

Accepted Answer

Excel@Uni is a specialist bursary/scholarship management and student success company. We partner with businesses, foundations, and other funders to administer scholarship and bursary programs from start to finish. Our team handles everything, from recruiting and selecting the right students, to managing their funding (tuition, allowances, etc.), monitoring their progress, and providing extra support to ensure each student succeeds. We combine robust administration with wrap-around student support to make student funding programs easy for our partners and effective for the students.

Question 2

What services does Excel@Uni offer to organizations running bursary or scholarship programs?

Accepted Answer

We offer a comprehensive suite of services to streamline your bursary program and maximize its impact. These include bursary program design and setup, outreach and application management, candidate selection through transparent scoring systems, funds disbursement and administration, ongoing student support with mentoring and tutoring, and detailed reporting for compliance and ROI tracking.
•	Bursary Program Design and Setup: We help design your scholarship/bursary program (criteria, process, support structure) to align with your goals, whether it’s internal skills development or corporate social investment.
•	Outreach & Application Management: We handle advertising your bursary and managing all applications through our online Aura Application Management System, which makes it easy for students to apply and for us to collect all needed documents and data digitally. This includes eligibility screening, document collection, and applicant communications in one platform (no more spreadsheets or email chaos).
•	Candidate Selection: Excel@Uni manages the entire selection process. We use transparent, multi-criteria evaluation methods to shortlist and choose the most deserving candidates in line with your requirements. This can involve academic and financial need assessments, coordinating interviews, and unbiased scoring systems to ensure fairness.
•	Funds Disbursement & Administration: We administer the bursary funds on your behalf. This means liaising with educational institutions to pay tuition or residence fees, disbursing students’ stipends (living allowances) on schedule, arranging textbook purchases, handling travel or equipment allowances, and keeping detailed financial records. We essentially take care of all the paperwork and payments, ensuring the funds are used for the intended educational expenses.
•	Student Support & Monitoring: Our support doesn’t stop at funding. Excel@Uni provides ongoing student mentoring, academic tutoring (through our SimplyTutors platform), career readiness resources and progress tracking via our Mila student information system. We monitor each student’s academic results and well-being, provide mentorship and tutoring if they struggle, and run career-readiness workshops to prepare them for employment. This holistic support drives higher pass rates and graduation success, protecting your investment in each student.
•	Reporting & Compliance: We deliver regular reports and updates to you. This includes academic progress reports, financial reports, and impact metrics. All data is captured in our systems, so we can generate audit-ready reports that demonstrate your program’s outcomes and return on investment. We ensure your bursary program complies with any governance requirements (for example, South African Skills Development or B-BBEE reporting needs) through meticulous documentation and record-keeping.
In short, we provide an end-to-end solution covering every aspect of a bursary program, from the first application to the day the student graduates, making it effortless for partner organizations to run successful bursaries.

Question 3

We already have an in-house bursary program. Can Excel@Uni help manage or improve it?

Accepted Answer

Yes, absolutely. Excel@Uni can step in to support or take over the administration of your existing bursary or scholarship program. We work with many clients who already have established programs but need extra capacity or expertise. By leveraging our platform and experience, we streamline your bursary management and reduce the administrative burden on your team. We’ll adapt to your program’s current criteria and processes, or help enhance them if needed. Essentially, you can outsource the day-to-day management to us, from handling student queries and payments to tracking academic progress, while you retain control over high-level decisions and funding. This allows your organization to focus on its core work, confident that the bursary scheme is running smoothly and efficiently.

Question 4

We’re considering starting a new scholarship/bursary program from scratch. Can Excel@Uni assist us in designing and implementing it?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Excel@Uni frequently partners with organizations to build new bursary programs from the ground up. We’ll guide you through every step of the process. Our team can help you define the bursary’s purpose and target (for example, whether it’s for developing future talent in your industry, supporting students from certain communities, etc.), set the eligibility criteria, and determine the benefits students will receive. We bring over a decade of expertise in what works best to achieve meaningful impact. Once the program is designed, we handle implementation: launching the applications (via our Aura online portal), promoting the opportunity to attract applicants, selecting the right students, and managing all the bursary logistics and student support. In other words, we provide a turn-key solution, your organization provides the funding and strategic direction, and Excel@Uni executes the program to meet your objectives.

Question 5

Do we have to use the full end-to-end service, or can we choose specific Excel@Uni solutions?

Accepted Answer

We offer flexible partnership options. While many partners use our full end-to-end service, you can indeed choose specific components based on your needs. For example, if you only need help with the application process, you can use our Aura Applications Management System as a stand-alone solution. Aura can collect and shortlist applications efficiently even if you handle other parts in-house. Similarly, you might opt to use our Mila student tracking and reporting app to improve how you monitor students’ progress, without outsourcing the entire bursary administration. Or you could engage us just for certain student success services like mentoring, tutoring and career readiness for students. Our approach is very modular: you can plug in the Excel@Uni services or software that fill your gaps. We will work with you to craft a tailored solution, so you only pay for the support you actually need.

Question 6

What makes Excel@Uni different from other bursary management providers?

Accepted Answer

Excel@Uni stands out through its technology-driven systems, holistic student support, proven results, and cultural understanding of students. Our platforms, Aura and Mila, streamline bursary administration and provide real-time insights. Our wrap-around student support improves graduation outcomes, and our recognition by Google and other organizations highlights our innovation and impact.

Excel@Uni stands out for a few key reasons:
•	Technology-Driven Efficiency: We built our own proprietary systems (Aura AMS for applications management; Mila for student progress monitoring and engagement) to modernize the entire life cycle of bursary administration. This means we can process applications and track student progress in real-time, far more efficiently than traditional manual methods. Our competitors often rely on outdated processes, whereas our tech-enabled approach saves time and gives you better insights.
•	Holistic Student Support Focus: We go beyond just funding administration. Excel@Uni is deeply committed to student success. We provide mentorship, tutoring, and career preparation to the students in our programs. Many administrators simply pay tuition and check grades; we actively engage with students to address challenges early (academic or personal) and improve graduation rates. This wrap-around support leads to more on-time graduations and better outcomes for both the student and the sponsor. While some competitors present this type of support as a light-touch feature bundled within their end-to-end offerings, we take a different approach. We’ve designed ours to be fully modular. This means our partners have the freedom to tailor exactly the level of support they want for their students, ensuring maximum impact without being locked into a one-size-fits-all package.
•	Proven Results and Experience: We have over a decade of experience and an excellent track record (see the next FAQ for details). Our innovative approach has been validated by external recognition, for example, Google selected Excel@Uni for its Black Founders Fund 2023 as one of the top 1% of black-led young businesses in Europe and Africa. We’ve also been featured among Africa’s top EdTech companies. These honors reflect our quality, innovation, and impact in the education funding space.
•	Understanding of Students: Excel@Uni was founded by individuals who personally experienced the challenges of being bursary students, and we like to keep our team composition relatively young and diverse. We pride ourselves on being close to the student experience and culturally in tune with the students we serve. This helps us connect with bursary students in a way that results in higher engagement and student satisfaction.
•	Transparent Communication: We ensure our partner organizations are kept in the loop with regular updates, and we’re responsive to your needs. Because we use real-time systems, you can request up-to-date info at any time. At Excel@Uni, we believe in being accountable. Our partners know that if something goes wrong, we take responsibility quickly and work to make it right. We also make sure everything we do is data-driven, so you can clearly see the impact of your investment in education. Put simply, Excel@Uni is your tech-enabled, student-centered, results-driven partner for bursary and scholarship funding

Question 7

What analytics and live reporting features does the Mila platform provide?

Accepted Answer

Mila offers real-time insights into student progress, including academic results and well-being updates. It flags at-risk students, stores documents, and generates audit-ready reports for compliance and B-BBEE tracking. Partners can access dashboards and export data for further analysis.

Question 8

Can Excel@Uni tailor recruitment to specific groups such as feeder schools or high-achieving disadvantaged students?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Recruitment can be customized to target specific groups, including feeder schools and high-potential students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Criteria can be adapted to meet your objectives, ensuring that your bursary reaches the students who will benefit most.

Question 9

How does Excel@Uni support audit compliance and B-BBEE tracking?

Accepted Answer

We maintain comprehensive documentation to ensure compliance with audit and B-BBEE reporting. Excel@Uni has passed all client audits and provides partners with the records needed for B-BBEE Skills Development reporting.

Question 10

How does Excel@Uni manage tutoring services and monitor usage?

Accepted Answer

Excel@Uni manages tutoring through its SimplyTutors platform, setting budget limits and preventing misuse. We provide detailed monthly reconciliations and link tutoring usage with academic outcomes. Over 80% of students typically report performance improvements from tutoring, and we run a bi-annual survey to assess the impact of tutoring on students’ academic outcomes.

Question 11

How does Excel@Uni integrate technology and keep the platform updated?

Accepted Answer

Our in-house technology team continuously updates all platforms with new features, informed by partner and student feedback. Updates that fall within our roadmap are included at no extra cost, ensuring that partners benefit from the latest innovations in bursary management and student support.

Question 12

What return on investment can funders expect with Excel@Uni?

Accepted Answer

Excel@Uni programs deliver higher graduation rates and lower dropout rates than the national average. This maximizes the impact of funding and ensures a strong ROI through better student outcomes and potential talent pipelines for sponsoring organizations.

Question 13

What is the onboarding process and timeline for new partners?

Accepted Answer

Once an SLA is signed, we can onboard a new bursary program within two - four weeks, including setting up students on our systems. We hold a go-live meeting to align stakeholders. In urgent cases, we can begin certain steps before the SLA is finalized, although this is not ideal.

Question 14

What is Excel@Uni’s experience and track record in this field?

Accepted Answer

Excel@Uni has been operating for over 10 years (from its pilot phase in 2013) and has a strong track record in bursary management. Our experience spans several types of bursary programs: for example, we’ve administered internal staff and employee-dependent bursaries, external talent development scholarships (to build future talent pipelines), community-based bursaries as part of Corporate Social Investment, and more. Both our clients and the students rate our services highly, we’ve received an over 80% recommendation rating on average from partner organizations, and similarly positive feedback from bursary students who have gone through our programs. In summary, our decade-plus of experience and solid results demonstrate that Excel@Uni is a reliable and effective bursary management partner.

Question 15

How much do Excel@Uni’s services cost?

Accepted Answer

We customize our pricing based on the scope and requirements of your bursary program, so there isn’t a one-size-fits-all price. Factors like the number of students, the level of support services included, and specific tools you need will influence the cost. Because of this, we prefer to discuss pricing individually with each potential partner. Please contact us to be connected with our partnerships division, our team will happily assess your needs and provide a detailed quote or pricing structure. In general, our aim is to deliver high value and we’re open to finding solutions that work within your budget. But for exact pricing, a direct conversation is the best route.

Question 16

How can we get in touch or start a partnership with Excel@Uni?

Accepted Answer

We’d love to discuss how we can help your organization. To get started, you can reach out to us directly and we’ll connect you with our partnerships team. Here’s how to contact us:
•	Email: You can send an email to hello@excelatuni.com with your inquiry or request, and we’ll respond promptly.
•	Contact Form: Alternatively, visit our “Contact Us” page on our website and fill out the form with your details. Provide a brief description of your needs, and we’ll get back to you to set up a meeting or call.
•	Phone: You can call our partnerships line at +27 78 635 5818 to speak with our partnerships division. 
Once you contact us, we typically arrange an initial consultation to understand your bursary program needs. From there, we can propose a tailored solution and outline next steps. We make the onboarding process as smooth as possible. So please don’t hesitate to reach out, we are ready to assist and answer any further questions you might have.

Excel@Uni Frequently Asked Questions

EXCEL@UNI – FAQs