The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) is an international programme under which
Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
governments offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries.
History
The plan was originally proposed by Canadian statesman
Sidney Earle Smith
Sidney Earle Smith, (March 9, 1897 – March 17, 1959) was an academic and Canada's Secretary of State for External Affairs in the government of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker.
Early life and education
Born and raised on Nova Scotia ...
in a speech in Montreal on 1 September 1958 and was established in 1959, at the first Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) held in Oxford, Great Britain. Since then, over 25,000 individuals have held awards, hosted by over twenty countries. The CSFP is one of the primary mechanisms of pan-Commonwealth exchange.
Organisation
There is no central body which manages the CSFP. Instead, participation is based on a series of bi-lateral arrangements between home and host countries. The participation of each country is organised by a national nominating agency, which is responsible for advertising awards applicable to their own country and making nominations to host countries.
In the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and No ...
, which is the biggest contributor to the Plan, this process is managed by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in Britain, a
non-departmental public body
In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process o ...
, and funded by the
Department for International Development
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. Since 2008, the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreig ...
no longer contributes financially to the plan and the number and type of scholarships available for students from more developed Commonwealth countries (Australia, The Bahamas, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Cyprus, Malta, New Zealand, and Singapore) to study in Britain has been reduce Other countries, such as Australia, no longer offer scholarships as part of the CSFP.
New reforms were developed to strategically align scholarships with mutual interests for business and innovation between Commonwealth nations. During the state visit of President
Tony Tan
Tony Tan Keng Yam (; born 7 February 1940) is a Singaporean former politician who served as the seventh president of Singapore between 2011 and 2017. He did not seek for a second term as president in 2017 due to a constitutional amendment ...
to the UK in October 2014, Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
announced that the Royal Commonwealth Society of Singapore would be re-established to promote the Commonwealth and to provide new Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowships in Innovation for Singaporeans. The first Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship for Innovation were presented in August 2017 t Joshua Cheong and Dr Khoo Hsien Hui by the Rt. Hon.
Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid (; born 5 December 1969) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the Exchequer ...
.
Notable past Commonwealth Scholars and Fellows include
George Brandis
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Attorney-General of Australia
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*
Ross Cranston
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, Member of Parliament for Dudley North, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
*
Bill English
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, Prime Minister of New Zealand
*
Babalola Borishade
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Early life
Borishad ...
, Former Minister of Education, Aviation Nigeria
*
John Alexander Forrest
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, Member for Mallee, Australia
* Leslie Gunawardana, Former Minister of Science, Sri Lanka
*
Hala Hameed
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The daughter of Abdulla Hameed, she was educated at the American University of ...
, Maldivian Minister of State
*
Juma Athuman Kapuya
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Kapuya was a member of the National Executive Council of the governing Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) f ...
, Minister of Labour, Employment and Youth Development
*
Kalombo Mwansa
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Kalombo Mwansa became Zambia's Defense Minister on July 9, 2009. He was previously the foreign minister
A foreign affairs minis ...
, Home Affairs Minister of Zambia
*
Satendra Nandan
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Nandan was born in Uttar Pradesh, India. After completing his secondary ed ...
, Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Fiji
*
Rolph Payet
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, Seychellois Cabinet Minister
* Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago
*
Carlos Simons Carlos W. Simons QC (born 8 October 1954) is a Turks and Caicos Islands lawyer and politician.
Career
SImons served on a four-member interim Advisory Council He from July 1986 to 3 March 1988 after two previous Chief Ministers were forced to resig ...
, Member, Interim Advisory Council, Turks and Caicos Islands
*
Abdullah Tarmugi
Abdullah bin Tarmugi ( Jawi: عبدالله بن ترموڬي; born 25 August 1944) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore between 2002 and 2011.
Early life
Born to a Javanese father and a Chines ...
, Singaporean politician and MP
* Michael Tate, Minister for Justice, Australia
Patrick Keane
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Early life an ...
, Judge of the High Court of Australia
*
Ross Cranston
Sir Ross Frederick Cranston (born 23 July 1948) is a professor of Law at London School of Economics and a retired High Court judge. He is also a former British Labour Party politician, and served as the Member of Parliament for Dudley North be ...
Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd
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Thomas was born in 1947 to Roger Ed ...
,
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
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Government
*
Mark Carney
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, Governor of the Bank of England
*
Michael Omolewa
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, Permanent Delegate and Ambassador to UNESCO, Nigeria
*
Carolyn McMaster
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The University of Mysore is a public state university in Mysore, Karnataka, India. The university was founded during the reign of Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore. The university is recognised by the University Grants Commission ...
,
Karnataka
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Anisuzzaman
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He was an activist who took part in the Language Movement (1952), participated in Mass Uprising (1969), and took part in the Bangladesh Liberation ...
, Emeritus Professor of Bengali,
University of Dhaka
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Warrick Couch
Warrick John Couch (born 1954) is an Australian professional astronomer. He is currently a professor at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. He was previously the Director of Australia's largest optical observatory, the Australia ...
, astronomer, Director of the
Australian Astronomical Observatory
The Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), formerly the Anglo-Australian Observatory, was an optical and near-infrared astronomy observatory with its headquarters in North Ryde in suburban Sydney, Australia. Originally funded jointly by the ...
and President of the
Australian Institute of Physics
The Australian Institute of Physics was established in 1963, when it replaced the Australian Branch of the British Institute of Physics based in London.
Germaine Greer
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Specializing in English and women's literat ...
, Australian feminist author; former professor of English Literature and Comparative Studies at the University of Warwick
*
Robert Gavin Hampson
Robert Gavin Hampson FEA FRSA (born 1948) is a British poet and academic. Hampson was born and raised in Liverpool, studied in London and Toronto and settled in London. He is currently Research Fellow at the Institute for English Studies, Univer ...
, Professor of English, Royal Holloway, University of London.
*
Charles Jago
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He was born and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario. He received his BA in Honours English and History from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario i ...
, President of the University of Northern British Columbia
* Karuppannan Jaishankar, Professor of Criminology, Raksha Shakti University, India
*
Abu Hena Mustafa Kamal
Abu Hena Mustafa Kamal (11 March 1936 – 23 September 1989) was a Bangladeshi songwriter, poet, essayist, critic and presenter. In his early life, he was a singer on East Bengal radio and television. He was a professor of Bengali literature at t ...
, poet, songwriter & professor at
University of Dhaka
The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently i ...
* Will Kymlicka, Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy, Queen's University at Kingston
*
Nissim Mannathukkaren
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, Associate Professor, Dalhousie University Department of International Development Studies
* Angus McIntosh, Forbes Professor of English Language and General Linguistics, University of Edinburgh
* Lynette Mitchell, Professor in Greek History and Politics,
University of Exeter
, mottoeng = "We Follow the Light"
, established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter)
, type = Public
, ...
*
Bridget Ogilvie
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Education
Ogilvie was born in 1938 at Glen Innes, New South Wales, Australia, to John Mylne and Margaret Beryl (née McRae) Ogilvie. During her prim ...
, Director of the Wellcome Trust
*
Pratapaditya Pal
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, Curator-Emeritus and formerly, Curator, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
*
Peng Tsu Ann
Peng Tsu Ann (born 1936) is a Singaporean mathematician, and the first University of Singapore (now the National University of Singapore, Abbreviation: NUS) graduate to obtain a PhD in mathematics. Peng was the Head of the Department of Mathemati ...
, Professor of Mathematics,
National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in th ...
*
Raja Ramanna
Raja Ramanna (28 January 1925 – 24 September 2004) was an Indian physicist who is best known for his role in India's nuclear program during its early stages.
Having joined the nuclear program in 1964, Ramanna worked under Homi Jeha ...
, chairman, Atomic Energy Commission of India
*
B. N. Suresh
Byrana Nagappa Suresh (born 12 November 1943) is an Indian aerospace scientist. He is presently the Chancellor, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) at Thiruvananthapuram and Honorary Distinguished Professor at ISRO HQ. He w ...
, Director,
Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre
The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) is a major space research centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), focusing on rocket and space vehicles for India's satellite programme. It is located in Thiruvananthapuram, in the India ...
*
Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh
Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh (born 16 February 1937) is a painter, poet and art critic from Gujarat, India. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1983 and Padmabhushan in 2014 for his contribution in field of art.
Early life
Sheikh was born on 16 Febru ...
, Professor of Art, Baroda University
*
Lalji Singh
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, Director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad
*
Sheung-Wai Tam
Tam Sheung-wai (1934 – 1 January 2021) Officer of the Order of the British Empire, OBE, Hong Kong honours system, GBS, Justice of the Peace, JP () was the President Emeritus of Open University of Hong Kong, The Open University of Hong Kong. H ...
, President Emeritus of The Open University of Hong Kong
*
Stephen Toope
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In April 2013 he announced he was stepping down ...
Jeremy Waldron
Jeremy Waldron (; born 13 October 1953) is a New Zealand professor of law and philosophy. He holds a University Professorship at the New York University School of Law, is affiliated with the New York University Department of Philosophy, and was ...
, Professor of law and philosophy, New York University School of Law
*
Alexandra Walsham
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, Professor of Modern History, University of Cambridge
*
Fiona Williams
Jonquil Fiona Williams, (born 22 July 1947) is a British retired academic of social policy whose research covers gender, race, ethnicity, and the welfare state. From 1996 to 2012, she was Professor of Social Policy at the University of Leeds. Sh ...
, Professor of Social Policy, University of Leeds
* Kamta Prasad, former professor of economics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Journalists
*
Edward Greenspon
Edward Greenspon (born March 26, 1957) is a Canadian journalist who was at Bloomberg News in January 2014 as Editor-at-Large for Canada after four years as vice president of strategic investments for Star Media Group, a division of Torstar Corp. a ...
, Editor-in-Chief, ''The Globe and Mail'', Canada
*
Charles Krauthammer
Charles Krauthammer (; March 13, 1950 – June 21, 2018) was an American political columnist. A moderate liberal who turned independent conservative as a political pundit, Krauthammer won the Pulitzer Prize for his columns in '' The Washingt ...
, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist
*
Chandan Mitra
Chandan Mitra ( bn, চন্দন মিত্র; 12 December 1954 – 1 September 2021) was an Indian journalist and politician who was the editor and managing director of '' The Pioneer'' newspaper in Delhi. He was also a two-term member ...
, Editor and managing director of ''The Pioneer'', New Delhi
Performing Arts
* Walter Learning, Founder of Theatre New Brunswick
* Shyamaprasad, Leading Indian (Malayalam) film Director, President, Amrita Television
Social Entrepreneurs
*
Kirthi Jayakumar
Kirthi Jayakumar (born 15 December 1987) is a peace educator, a women, peace, and security and feminist foreign policy practitioner, lawyer and writer. She is a Commonwealth Scholar, a Vital Voices (VV) Lead Fellow, a VV Engage Fellow, a Loca ...