National Toppers Scholarship Schemes (NTS) are full scholarships for the top ranked Fijians who have completed their Year 13 or such equivalent studies as determined by the Board locally in the year preceding the award.
 
For simplicity, the awards for 2022 will be given to students who have completed Year 13 locally in 2021 and achieved the minimum mark required for priority areas established by the Government.
 

The Board being referred to is the Directors/Board members of the Tertiary Scholarships and Loans Service.

Such Equivalent studies as determined by the Board refers to relevant qualifications other than Foundation Studies and Repeat of Year 13 completed locally and are deemed to be equivalent of Fiji’s Year 13 qualification. As an example, Fijians studying at an international school in Fiji and have completed a high school qualification which is qualified as equivalent to Year 13 of Fijian Qualification Framework.

No. Any student completing Foundation Studies are no longer eligible to apply for NTS Local or Overseas scholarships (currently suspended). However, Foundation Studies students are eligible to apply for Tertiary Education Loans Scheme (“TELS”) in 2022. From 2023 onwards students completing foundations studies will not be eligible for Tertiary Education Loans Scheme (“TELS”)

No. Students who repeat Year 13 or the Equivalence of Year 13 are not eligible to apply for NTS. A student has to be ranked as a National Topper in the first attempt in Year 13 or Such Equivalent Studies as determined by the Board. However, these students are eligible to apply for Tertiary Education Loans Scheme (“TELS”).

For the year 2022 there are 480 Scholarships available for studies locally under NTS Local. Additionally, there are 120 awards for Inservice Scholarships.

The exact number of awards and the distribution per priority area will be determined on an annual basis. This will be as announced in the national budget and advertised by TSLS annually in the local print media.

An applicant must satisfy all of the following criteria to be eligible to apply for NTS:

1. Must be a Fijian Citizen;
2. Must be an ordinarily resident in Fiji for at least three years before the award commencement date;
3. Must be either in Year 13 or Such Equivalent Studies as determined by the Board at the time of applying for NTS. That is in the year before the scholarship award year;
4. Must be applying for one of the Fijian Government priority areas as advertised annually by TSLS following the budget announcement.
5. Must be ranked as a National Topper in the applied priority category and area applied for by meeting the annual cut off mark for each priority category;
6. Must secure a place in a Higher Education Institution by means of an offer letter.

The current priority areas of the Fijian Government are divided into 10 categories. Click here to find out more on the priority categories and area of studies.

No. You cannot apply for NTS to pursue any qualifications outside the national priority areas list as published by TSLS.
 
For programs not listed in the national priority list, you can apply for TELS.
 

In case you cannot find any program of your preference in the drop-down menu on TSLS Online application portal, it means that the program is not part of the priority areas of the Fijian Government and as such does not qualify for NTS application.
 
You can either select another program which is in the drop-down menu or apply for TELS (which has its own set of programs to choose from).

The current eligibility criteria for NTS Overseas Scholarships are that the applicant:

1. Must be a Fijian Citizen;
2. Must be an ordinarily resident in Fiji for at least three years before the award commencement date;
3. Must be either in Year 13 or Such Equivalent Studies as determined by the Board at the time of applying for NTS. That is in the year before the scholarship award year; and
4. Must be applying for a priority area published annually that is not offered or the equivalence of the program is offered by any higher education institutions in Fiji; and
5. Must have a valid offer letter from an overseas higher education institution for a priority area program not offered locally.

Currently there are no restrictions on the countries in which students can pursue their qualifications under the award.
 
However, the students must select countries and higher education institutions which are the most cost effective and are offering internationally ranked programs which are recognized and accredited with the Fijian regulatory and/or professional bodies.
 
In case where a student has applied for studies in a country where the costs are higher than some other cheaper destinations offering good quality qualifications, TSLS reserves the right to either ask the applicant to change the preferred country or decline the application.

No. Double degree is not funded. Double degree means doing two-degree programs simultaneously. An example of this is Bachelor of Accounting and Bachelor of Actuarial Finance.
 
However, you can do a program with double majors, a major and a minor, a single major program or what is commonly known as prescribed programs.

The minimum cut off mark for each category will vary and have a Minimum Entry Requirement and a particular subject combination depending on the program being selected.
 
For all of the programs, English is a compulsory entry requirement, with Mathematics being mandatory for fields such as Engineering and Commerce.  For full details on minimum cut off marks and entry requirements please Click Here to find out more.

The following steps and criteria’s are used for all NTS application ranking and selection for awards:

1. Provisional Year 13 Results from Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts will be obtained by TSLS after the release of the results.
2. Results for all other examinations deemed equivalent of Year 13 as determined by the Board will also be obtained from the applicants;
3. All results will be converted to a common denomination (percentage of the total aggregate score) for ease of comparison.
4. Aggregate scores for each student will be calculated based on the Minimum Entry Requirement.
5. After converting all results to a common unit of measurement, the applicants would be ranked in a descending order (highest to lowest) for each category and sub-category of awards. This will form part of the national ranking of all applicants based on academic merit.
6. Only complete applications will be ranked. All incomplete applications will miss out on the ranking.
7. After the national ranking, ranking of applicants for each priority category and sub-category will be done in a descending order. For example, if Category Infrastructure has 90 awards, the top 90 applicants for this category will be identified and ranked in the descending order. In a similar way, ranking for each category will be completed.
8. Preference by TSLS for ranking by category will be given to the first indicated choice of the applicants in the application form.
9. Only if the quota for a category or sub-category is not filled based on the first indicated choice of the applicants, second choice would be considered. Third choice will only be considered if the quota for a category or sub-category is not filled after all first and second choices have been considered and exhausted in the ranking process;
10. After the ranking for the shortlisted applicants for each category is completed, all other applications for the scheme for an academic calendar would be moved to TELS and processed as per the eligibility criteria.
11. Shortlisted and ranked students may be required to attend an interview if deemed necessary before the final decision is made.
12. In case interviews are conducted by TSLS, the final ranking and decision will be based on the total weighted scores of the applicants for each category.
13. All shortlisted applicants for each category would be ranked in the descending order and the top ranked students would be made an offer until the predetermined quota is filled.
14. All decisions of TSLS in relation to the awarding of scholarships shall be final and shall not be subject to an appeal as stipulated under Section 13(2) of the Act.
15. All successful applicants must complete, sign and upload the provisional offer scholarship letter and bond agreement within 7 days from the date stated on the offer letter. Failure to do so will result in the cancellation of the offer by TSLS.
16. Scholarships will only be confirmed after TSLS has issued the scholarship confirmation letter after assessing the completed offer letter and bond agreement.
17. In case where two of more applicants are tied for a scholarship for any category and there is only one scholarship available to be awarded, the date of application will be considered. The applicant submitting the application earlier will be considered over the remaining applicants with the same ranking.

As stated in Question 15 above, different categories have different cut off mark for NTS awards annually. There are 10 categories for NTS awards. These are Medicine and Health, Engineering, Technology, Agriculture, Fisheries & Forests, Social Sciences, Environment/ Marine Science, Land/Town Planning, Commerce, Education and Special Areas –Diploma and Certificates.
 
Also as explained in Question 15, each category has a quota and students are ranked from highest to lowest in each category and offers are made unless the quota is reached.
 
As an example, due to different Minimum Entry Requirements, a student with 335 opting to apply for Engineering, may miss out on the scholarship if he/she has not done English, Mathematics and Physics. On the same note, a student with 301, applying for Agriculture, may still get the scholarship, as the category only requires English and Agriculture and not Mathematics.
 
Therefore, it is important to note that different categories have different qualifying entries, and despite excellent marks, if entry requirements are not met, a scholarship is not guaranteed.

No. You cannot request for change in program/major or minor for a category which is outside the category for which TSLS has made an offer to you for. For example, if you have been given an offer for the “Commerce” category, you cannot request for a change in program/major/minor which belongs in another category, such as Tourism, Education or Technology.
 
However, you can request for changes within the same category. For example, Change from Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting/Economics) to Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting/Finance).
 
No changes for NTS Overseas Scholarship will be approved. (NTS Overseas is currently suspended until further notice!!)
 
If you were selected based on an oral interview or an aptitude test for a certain category of award, then no change of program will be allowed as you have been selected based on your merit (inclusive of academic and oral interview/ aptitude test) for a certain category.
 

Yes. You can apply for change in either the Program/Major/Minor or Institution under NTS Local Scholarship only once after the award confirmation letter has been issued using Form TSLS 04-02 provided you satisfy the following conditions:
 

1. Non-Medical Students and Medical Students not on annualized program

• These are students who are enrolled who have awarded NTS awards in categories other than “Medical and Health” or for programs within the “Medical and Health” which are assessed and graded on a term-by-term basis.
• Students falling in this category are eligible to apply for change in either the major/minor/program and institution provided the request is made in writing to TSLS before the second year of the award. That is, you can request for the change either after one term of studies or two terms of studies under the award.
• No request for change will be considered after more than 2 terms of studies under NTS.
• Any change in either the program/major/minor/institution must be in the same NTS priority category as the initial award.

 

2. ii. Medical Students on Annualized assessed programs?

• These are students who have been given scholarship in the “Medical and Health” category and the courses that they are enrolled in are not graded at the end of each academic term but at the end of the annual academic year. E.g., MBBS program.
• Students falling in this category are eligible to apply for change in either the major/minor/program and institution provided the request is made in writing to TSLS before they commence the third year of the award. That is, you can request for the change either after year 1 or year 2 studies under the award.
• No request for change will be considered after more than 2 years of studies under NTS.
• Any change in either the program/major/minor/institution must be in the same NTS priority category as the initial award.

Strictly once only. Any application in excess of one prior approved application will be declined by TSLS.
 

This means that after the award confirmation letter has been issued, you can apply for either the program/major/minor/institution only once during the entire award duration.  In cases where you have been approved for a change in either the program, /major/minor or institution, you can no longer apply for any further changes. 
 
As an example, if you applied for and got the major approved once, you cannot further apply for any more changes to either the program/major/minor or institution.