What it means
بورسیه (bursiye) refers to a financial scholarship or bursary, typically granted by a government, university, or institution to fund a student’s education, often for study abroad. The word is a loanword from French bourse, which in French covers both the stock exchange and an educational grant. Persian borrowed it through the wave of French educational influence in the late Qajar and early Pahlavi eras, when many Iranian students went to France on state funding. A related phrase is بورسیهی دولتی (bursiye-ye dowlati, state scholarship). The more formal administrative term you may encounter in official documents is کمکهزینهی تحصیلی (komak-hazine-ye tahsili, literally study cost assistance), though بورسیه is what almost everyone says in conversation.
How to use it
- بورسیهی دولتی گرفتم و دارم فرانسه میخونم. (bursiye-ye dowlati gereftam o dâram farânse mikhânam.) “I got a state scholarship and I am studying in France.”
- برای این بورسیه باید معدل بالای هجده داشته باشی. (barâye in bursiye bâyad mo’addal-e bâlâ-ye hejdah dâshte bâshi.) “For this scholarship you need a GPA above eighteen.”
- درخواست بورسیه رو تا آخر بهمن باید بدی. (darkhâst-e bursiye ro tâ âkhar-e bahman bâyad bedi.) “You have to submit the scholarship application by the end of Bahman.”
- بدون بورسیه نمیتونستم ادامهی تحصیل بدم. (bedune bursiye nemitunestam edâme-ye tahsil bedam.) “Without the scholarship I could not have continued my studies.”
Cultural note
Iran has had a long tradition of state-sponsored study abroad, dating to the Qajar monarch Nasser al-Din Shah’s sending of students to Europe in the 19th century. The word بورسیه entered Persian precisely because French was the dominant language of those early programmes. Today, competitive government scholarships are managed through the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, and getting a full بورسیه is considered a mark of serious academic achievement. Families treat a child receiving a scholarship with the same pride they would attach to a top university admission.