Open Bursaries
Opening education right up...
Overview
Education is expensive. Many people do not have access to education due to a financial need which leads them to either take out life-changing loans or prevents them from acquiring the education. Bursaries we designed to solve this problem but often these bursaries are limited and due to limited source of income these bursaries have to turn away many students.
We wish to Open these Bursaries to everyone through the blockchain. The reason for doing this is to move the decision making power into the hands of the funding partner and to give those who have limited funds to give an opportunity to assist someone.
How is it managed?
Open Earth Labs' Open Bursaries team manages the bursaries for each student and all agreed upon grants are paid directly to the service provider and not the beneficiary. This ensures the money provided is used for the purpose it was designed for.
Our smart contract range allows for bursaries to be given based only on initial requirements or given based on initial and continuous results. The bursary is thus automatically terminated or funds granted out of custody to be used for the agreed upon grants.
Who can apply?
Any person may apply for a bursary through the Open Earth site. You are asked to submit certain information so that funders may make a decision to fund you. Open Earth do not decide who may and may not apply but do require KYC registration before you may apply and if granted all invoices are to be submitted to Open Earth for payment directly to the institution or service provider.
What may be included in a bursary request?
The following items may be included:
Tuition fees
Study material
Accomodation
Living grant
Equipment
What are the bursary types?
Full Course Initial
Full Course Duration
Direct provider payments only.
Annual fund adjustment.
Granted based on the initial request information only.
1 Year Initial
1 Year Only
Direct provider payments only.
Granted based on the initial request information only.
Full Course Continuous
Full Course Duration
Direct provider payments only.
Annual fund adjustment.
Granted based on the initial request information.
Subject results submitted per semester with sub-minimum mark required per subject.
Fund termination if continuous assessment criteria is not met.
1 Year Continuous
1 Year Only
Direct provider payments only.
Annual fund adjustment.
Granted based on the initial request information.
Subject results submitted per semester with sub-minimum mark required per subject.
Fund termination if continuous assessment criteria is not met.
How funding works
Funders are given two options to fund a bursary. The first one is through direct funding while the second one is through minting an Bursary EOI (Expression of Interest) NFT. The benefit to minting the Bursary EOI is that the funder benefits from the 10% Club.
Potential students create a bursary request and funders can then view these requests on the Open Earth Site. They can view the full request details and should they choose to fund the bursary then they are able to do so either by burning their NFT or by making a deposit into the fund.
Funders are able to deposit a minimum of $100 into the fund and once the fund has reached 100% the funding window is closed, funding NFT's are generated for each investor based on their contribution and the money is kept in escrow. Once funding is in escrow the funders are no longer able to withdraw their funds. When an invoice is submitted for payment to Open Earth Labs a voting event occurs to release the payment for the invoice. A voting window will be created and the majority vote during this voting window will determine the payment of the invoice. Once approved the appropriate funds are transferred to Open Earth Labs to execute the payment.
If the bursary conditions include continuous assessment then the student will need to submit their results each semester and the continuation vote will be opened for funders to decide to continue with the funding or not. The majority vote at the close of the voting window will decide this.
At the close of the funding window the funds available in the fund are distributed according to their initial funding percentages back to the funders.
Do Open Earth Labs charge anything?
All bursary requests include a 10% fee. This fee is used to fund the Open Earth 10% Club Reserve. This is done to ensure the sustainability of the project as well as the viability of the team managing the project. This 10% fee is only realised on approved invoice payments.
Last updated