Awards & Scholarships

Kampus SIS allows you to define awards and scholarships that can be assigned to students and applied as adjustments against their invoices. The awards system is built around two records: an award definition (a named, reusable award type) and an award assignment (the link between a specific award and a specific student). Once an assignment is approved, the award amount can be applied directly to a student’s invoice as an adjustment.

How Awards Work

The awards workflow in Kampus SIS follows these steps:

1. A finance administrator creates an award definition specifying the award type, name, and funding source. This definition acts as a template.
2. When a student is eligible, an officer creates an award assignment linking the award definition to the student, specifying the amount and academic year.
3. The assignment is reviewed and either approved or rejected. Only approved assignments can be applied to invoices.
4. The officer opens the student’s invoice and applies the approved award assignment as an adjustment. The invoice balance is reduced accordingly.

Award Types

Award definitions are categorised by type, which determines how they appear in reports:

Scholarship

A merit-based or needs-based award that reduces tuition or fees for the recipient. Scholarship adjustments appear in the Scholarships finance report.

Grant

A grant is an award provided by an external or internal funding body. Use this type when the source of funds is a grant programme.

Bursary

A financial support payment intended to help students with living costs or course materials, distinct from tuition reductions.

Waiver

A full or partial fee waiver awarded to a student, often based on institutional policy or individual circumstances.

Create an Award Definition

Award definitions are reusable templates. Create one definition per award programme and then assign it to multiple students as needed.

1. Go to Finance → Awards → Definitions.
2. Click New Award Definition.
3. Fill in the definition fields:
   • Code: A short unique identifier for the award (e.g., SCH-MERIT-2026). Auto-generated if award numbering is configured.
   • Name: The full display name of the award (e.g., “Merit Scholarship 2026”). This name appears on invoice adjustments.
   • Award Type: Select from Scholarship, Grant, Bursary, or Waiver.
   • Description: Optional description of the award criteria, funding source, or terms.
   • Funding Source: Optional. Record where the funding comes from (e.g., “Ministry of Education”, “Alumni Foundation”, “Internal”).
   • Status: Set to Active to allow assignments, or Inactive to disable new assignments without deleting the definition.
4. Click Save.

The award definition is now available to assign to students.

Assign an Award to a Student

An award assignment links a specific award definition to a student, specifying the amount and academic year for which the award applies.

1. Go to Finance → Awards → Assignments.
2. Click New Assignment.
3. Fill in the assignment fields:
   • Award Definition: Search and select the award definition to assign. Only active definitions are available.
   • Student: Search and select the student receiving the award.
   • Amount: The monetary value of the award for this student. Enter the amount in the invoice currency you intend to apply this adjustment to.
   • Academic Year: The academic year for which this award is granted. This is used for reporting.
   • Notes: Optional internal notes (e.g., rationale for the award, committee reference).
4. Click Save Assignment. The assignment is created with status Pending.

Note: A pending assignment cannot yet be applied to an invoice. It must first be approved.

Approve or Reject an Assignment

Award assignments require approval before they can be used. Users with the finance.awards.manage permission can approve or reject assignments.

Approve an Assignment

1. Go to Finance → Awards → Assignments and filter by status Pending.
2. Open the assignment you want to review.
3. Review the details: student, award definition, amount, and academic year.
4. Click Approve.

The assignment status changes to Approved and it becomes available to apply to the student’s invoices.

Reject an Assignment

1. Open the pending assignment.
2. Click Reject.
3. Enter a Rejection Reason. This is required and is recorded for audit purposes.
4. Click Confirm Rejection.

The assignment status changes to Rejected. It cannot be applied to an invoice. If the award should still proceed, create a new assignment with corrected details.

Apply an Award to an Invoice

Once an award assignment is approved, it can be applied to the student’s invoice as an adjustment.

1. Open the student’s invoice from Finance → Invoices.
2. Click Add Adjustment.
3. Select Award or Scholarship as the adjustment type (depending on the award type).
4. Search for and select the student’s approved award assignment from the list. The amount from the assignment is pre-filled.
5. Adjust the amount if you want to apply only part of the award value to this invoice.
6. Click Apply.

The invoice balance is reduced by the applied amount. The adjustment record is linked to the award assignment for a complete audit trail.

Pro Tip: You can apply the same award assignment across multiple invoices if the total applied amount does not exceed the assignment amount. This is useful for term-by-term billing where the award is spread over several invoices.

Permissions

Access to award functions is controlled by the following permissions:

Permissions are assigned to roles under Settings → Users & Roles.

Next: Discount Codes