on a scholarship vs. on scholarship

3

Example (These cramped Moscow dorms provide a rare glimpse into college life in Russia):

1:

Ndlovu, who attends the university on a scholarship, pays $10 a month for his room. "It's cheap. That's for sure," he told Dumont.

2:

Nigerian students Christopher Onoja, top, 22, and Issac Ismaila, bottom, 24, both came to Russia on a scholarship. “Honestly, I don’t like anything about this place because the rooms are full of roaches and bedbugs.

3:

According to Dumont, rooms shared between three to four people are generally around $50 a month per person if the students are not on scholarship.

The same news article, but different grammar. Which one is correct though?

Michael Rybkin

Posted 2015-08-10T06:10:54.907

Reputation: 37 124

Answers

4

Both are grammatically correct. But on a scholarship implies a specific scholarship while on scholarship describes a state. From these examples, you can see they use on a scholarship when describing specific students but they use on scholarship to describe the general state of a non-specified student.

Also, the word "scholarship" as used in on scholarship would be considered uncountable like the word "money". It is not necessarily referring to one scholarship as on a scholarship suggests.

StephanieS

Posted 2015-08-10T06:10:54.907

Reputation: 91

It appears that 'scholarship' when used without an article can be considered uncountable, compare with "money". – Victor Bazarov – 2015-08-10T15:41:20.597

Good point @VictorBazarov, I will add to my answer – StephanieS – 2015-08-10T15:52:57.220

Scholarship is always a countable noun when it means the amount granted to a student to pay for his education. – Khan – 2015-08-10T20:02:45.863

Asked: 2015-08-10T06:10:54.907

Viewed: 1 410 times

Active: 2016-01-05T17:01:51.580