The Rhodes Scholarship is an international
postgraduate award for students to study at the
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...
, in the
United Kingdom
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 European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world's most prestigious international scholarship programs. Its founder,
Cecil John Rhodes, wanted to promote unity among English-speaking nations and instill a sense of civic-minded leadership and moral fortitude in future leaders, irrespective of their chosen career paths.
Initially restricted to male applicants from countries that are today within
the Commonwealth, Germany and the United States, the scholarship is now open to applicants from all backgrounds and genders around the world. Since its creation,
controversy has surrounded its initial exclusion of women, its historical failure to select black Africans, and Cecil Rhodes's own standing as a
British imperialist.
Rhodes Scholars have achieved distinction as politicians, academics, scientists and doctors, authors, entrepreneurs, and
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...
winners. Many scholars have become heads of state or heads of government, including President of the United States
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (Birth name, né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 ...
, President of Pakistan
Wasim Sajjad, Prime Minister of Jamaica
Norman Manley, Prime Minister of Malta
Dom Mintoff, and Prime Ministers of Australia
Tony Abbott,
Bob Hawke, and
Malcolm Turnbull. Other notable Rhodes Scholars include Nobel Prize-winning scientist and discoverer of penicillin
Howard Florey, Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
Edwin Cameron, Nobel Prize-winning economist
Michael Spence, Australian High Court Justice
James Edelman, journalist and American television host
Rachel Maddow, author
Naomi Wolf, musician
Kris Kristofferson, U.S. Secretary of Transportation
Pete Buttigieg, acclaimed film maker
Terrence Malick, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Ronan Farrow.
History
Founding and motivation
Numerous international scholarship programs were very much underway by 1900. Since the 1880s, governments, universities, and individuals in the settler colonies had been establishing travelling scholarships to home universities. By 1900, the travelling scholarship had become an important part of settler universities' educational visions. It served as a crucial mechanism by which they sought to claim their citizenship of what they saw as the expansive British academic world. The Rhodes program was a copy that soon became the best-known version. The
Rhodes Trust established the scholarships in 1902 under the terms laid out in the sixth and final will of Cecil John Rhodes, dated 1 July 1899 and appended by several codicils through March 1902.
The scholarships were founded for two reasons: to promote unity within the British empire, and to strengthen diplomatic ties between Britain and the United States of America. In Rhodes's own words, "I…desire to encourage and foster an appreciation of the advantages which I implicitly believe will result from the union of the English-speaking peoples throughout the world and to encourage in the students from North America who would benefit from the American Scholarships."
Rhodes also bequeathed scholarships to German students in the hope that, "a good understanding between England, Germany and the United States of America will secure the peace of the world."
Rhodes, who attended
Oriel College, Oxford, believed the university's residential colleges would be the best venue to nurture diplomatic ties between future world leaders.
To this day, controversies persist over Rhodes's Anglo-supremacist beliefs, most of which date back to his 1877 confession of faith. However, such convictions did not play a part in the final vision for the scholarship. The scholarships are based on Rhodes's final will and testament, which states that "no student shall be qualified or disqualified for election…on account of his race or religious opinions".
The Rhodes Scholarships are administered and awarded by the Rhodes Trust, which is located at
Rhodes House in Oxford. The trust has been modified by four acts of Parliament: the Rhodes Estate Act 1916, the Rhodes Trust Act 1929, the Rhodes Trust Act 1946; and most recently by the Rhodes Trust (Modification) Order 1976, a
statutory instrument in accordance with Section 78 (4) of the
Sex Discrimination Act 1975
The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (c. 65) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which protected men and women from discrimination on the grounds of sex or marital status. The Act concerned employment, training, education, harassme ...
.
After Rhodes's death
20th century
In 1925, the
Commonwealth Fund Fellowships (later renamed the
Harkness Fellowships) were established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships by enabling British graduates to study in the United States.
[History of the Harkness Fellowships]
, nla.gov.au The
Kennedy Scholarship program, created in 1966 as a memorial to
John F. Kennedy, adopts a comparable selection process to the Rhodes Scholarships to allow ten British post-graduate students per year to study at either
Harvard or the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
(MIT). In 1953, the Parliament of the United Kingdom created the
Marshall Scholarship as a coeducational alternative to the Rhodes Scholarship that would serve as a "living gift" to the United States.
Cecil Rhodes wished current scholars and Rhodes alumni (in the words of his will) to have "opportunities of meeting and discussing their experiences and prospects". This has been reflected, for example, in the initiation by the first warden (Sir
Francis Wylie), of an annual warden's Christmas letter (now supplemented by Rhodes e-news and other communications); the creation of alumni associations in several countries, most prominently the Association of American Rhodes Scholars (which publishes ''The American Oxonian'', founded in 1914, and oversees the Eastman Professorship); and the holding of reunions for Rhodes Scholars of all countries.
In recognition of the centenary of the foundation of the Rhodes Trust in 2003, four former Rhodes Scholars were awarded
honorary degrees by the University of Oxford. These were
John Brademas,
Bob Hawke (Western Australia and
University
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
1953),
Rex Nettleford
Ralston Milton "Rex" Nettleford, OM, FIJ, OCC (3 February 1933 – 2 February 2010), was a Jamaican scholar, social critic, choreographer, and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), the leading research university ...
and David R. Woods. During the centenary celebrations, the foundation of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation was also marked.
21st century
In 2013, during the 110th Rhodes anniversary celebrations,
John McCall MacBain
John H. McCall MacBain (born ) is a Canadian billionaire businessman and philanthropist who is the founder of the McCall MacBain Foundation and Pamoja Capital SA, its investment arm. Prior to establishing the McCall MacBain Foundation, in the l ...
, Marcy McCall MacBain and the McCall MacBain Foundation donated £75 million towards the fundraising efforts of the Rhodes Trust.
In 2015, Rhodes Scholar
R. W. Johnson published a critical account of the decline of the Rhodes Trust under its warden,
John Rowett
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
, and commended its recovery under wardens
Donald Markwell and
Charles R. Conn.
As of 2018, due to the introduction of the Global Rhodes Scholarships, the Rhodes Scholarship is open to
postgraduate students from anywhere in the world. Many of its greatest scholars have carried out its founder's later ideal of "equal rights for all civilized men" becoming some of the foremost voices in
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
and
social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, Equal opportunity, opportunities, and Social privilege, privileges within a society. In Western Civilization, Western and Culture of Asia, Asian cultures, the concept of social ...
. Some have even engaged in criticism of Cecil Rhodes himself (see
Rhodes must fall
Rhodes Must Fall was a protest Social movement, movement that began on 9 March 2015, originally directed against a statue at the University of Cape Town (UCT) that commemorates Cecil Rhodes. The campaign for the statue's removal received glob ...
). Because access to further education, particularly post-graduate education, is linked with
social mobility and
racial wealth disparity, the scholarship (which is for post-graduate students) continues to attract criticism; however, the scholarship's recent partnership with the
Atlantic Philanthropies is intended to help address those issues.
In 2019,
University of Tennessee graduate
Hera Jay Brown
In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; grc-gre, Ἥρα, Hḗrā; grc, Ἥρη, Hḗrē, label=none in Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she ...
became the first
transgender woman to be selected for a Rhodes Scholarship. Two
non-binary scholars were also selected for the 2020 class.
Selection and selectivity
Selection criteria
In his will, Rhodes specified that he did not want his scholarships to go to "merely bookworms." He wanted each candidate assessed in regard to:
*his literary and scholastic attainments
*his fondness of and success in manly outdoor sports such as cricket, football and the like
*his qualities of manhood, truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for the protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness, and fellowship
*his exhibition during school days of moral force of character and of instincts to lead and to take an interest in his schoolmates for those latter attributes will be likely in after-life to guide him to esteem the performance of public duty as his highest aim
To assess candidates, Rhodes specified a 200-point scale, unequally applied to each of the four areas (3/10 to each of the first and third areas, 2/10 to each of the other two areas). The first area was to be judged by examination, the second and third by ballot from the candidate's fellow students, and the fourth by the headmaster of the candidate's school. The results for each candidate would be sent to the trustees of Rhodes's will, or their appointees, who would then give a final assessment by averaging the marks for each candidate. Except for the candidates submitted by the four schools in southern Africa, the trustees were vested with the final decisions.
Rhodes also added that the scholars should be distributed among the Colleges at Oxford, that the trustees could remove any scholar at their discretion, and that the trustees were to host an annual dinner so scholars could discuss their "experiences and prospects". The trustees were also encouraged to invite to the dinner other "persons who have shown sympathy with the views expressed by me in this my Will".
In 2018, the same criteria underwent revision:
*literary and scholastic attainments
*energy to use one's talents to the full
*truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship
*moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one's fellow beings
Each country's scholarship varies in its selectivity. In the United States, applicants must first pass a university-internal endorsement process, then proceed to one of the 16 U.S. districts committees. In 2020, approximately 2,300 students sought their institution's endorsement for the American Rhodes scholarship, among those 953 from 288 institutions were university-endorsed, of whom 32 were ultimately elected. This represents a 1.4% award rate when considering both endorsed and non-endorsed applicants. As such, the American Rhodes Scholarship is more selective than the
Churchill Scholarship,
Truman Scholarship,
Marshall Scholarship,
Fulbright Scholarship, and
Mitchell Scholarship. It is approximately as selective as the
Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which has an award rate of 1.3%. In Canada between 1997 and 2002, there were an average of 234 university-endorsed applicants annually for 11 scholarships, for an acceptance rate of 4.7%. In addition, Canadian provinces differ widely in the number of applications received, with Ontario receiving 58 applications on average for 2 spots (3.4%) and Newfoundland and Labrador receiving 18 applications for 1 spot (5.7%). According to the Rhodes Trust, the overall global acceptance rate stands at 0.7%, making it one of the most competitive scholarships in the world.
An early change was the elimination of the scholarships for Germany during the
First and
Second World Wars. No German scholars were chosen from 1914 to 1929, nor from 1940 to 1969.
A change occurred in 1929, when an
Act of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation
Primary legislation and secondary legislation (the latter also called delegated legislation or subordinate legislation) are two forms of law, created respectively by the legislat ...
established a fund separate from the original proceeds of Rhodes's will and made it possible to expand the number of scholarships. Between 1993 and 1995, scholarships were extended to other countries in the
European Community
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...
.
Scholarship terms
Rhodes Scholars may study any full-time postgraduate course offered by the university, whether a taught master's program, a research degree, or a second undergraduate degree (senior status). The scholarship’s basic tenure is two years. However, it may also be held for one year or three years. Applications for a third year are considered during the course of the second year. University and college fees are paid by the
Rhodes Trust. In addition, scholars receive a monthly maintenance
stipend to cover accommodation and living expenses. Although all scholars become affiliated with a
residential college while at Oxford, they also enjoy access to
Rhodes House, an early 20th-century mansion with numerous public rooms, gardens, a library, study areas, and other facilities.
Allocation of scholarships
There were originally 60 scholarships.
[
Four ]South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
n boys' schools were mentioned in Rhodes's will, each to receive an annual scholarship: the Boys High School in Stellenbosch (today known as Paul Roos Gymnasium); the Diocesan College (Bishops) in Rondebosch; the South African College Schools (SACS) in Newlands; and St Andrew's College in Grahamstown. These have subsequently been opened also to former students of their partner schools (girls' or co-educational schools).
During the ensuing 100 years, the trustees have added about another 40 scholarships at one time or another, though not all have continued. Some of these extended the scheme to Commonwealth countries not mentioned in the will. A more detailed allocation by region by year can be found at Rhodes Scholarship Allocations
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the Sou ...
. Very brief summaries of some of the terms and conditions can be found on the trust's website. Complete details can be obtained from the nominating countries.
As of 2018, scholars are selected from over 20 Rhodes constituencies (64 countries) worldwide. In 2015, the Rhodes Scholarship extended into new territories, first with the announcement of a number of scholarships for China, later with the announcement of one to two scholarships per year for the United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at ...
. The organization administering the scholarships is preparing to begin naming scholars from China. The move into China is the biggest expansion since women became eligible in the 1970s.
Controversies
Exclusion of women
The Rhodes Scholarship was originally, as per the language used in Rhodes's will, open only to "male students." That stipulation would not change until 1977. Rhodes developed his scholarships partly through conversation with William Thomas Stead, editor of '' The Pall Mall Gazette'' and confidant of Rhodes, and at one time an executor of the Will who was stricken from the role when he objected to Rhodes's ill-fated effort to seize the Transvaal. Shortly after Rhodes's death, Stead implied in a published article about the Will that he suggested that Rhodes open the scholarships to women, but Rhodes refused. Nothing more is said on the matter.
After his death, the will was under the control of the Board of Trustees of the Rhodes Trust. In 1916, however, the trustees introduced a bill into the House of Commons that, catering to popular British sentiment during the War, "revoked and annulled" the scholarships for Germans. Since then, legal control over the will has resided with Parliament.
In 1970, the trustees established the Rhodes Visiting Fellowships. Unlike the regular scholarship, a Visiting Fellow was expected to have a doctorate or comparable degree, and to use the two-year funded study to engage in independent research. Only 33 Visiting Fellowships were awarded.
In 1975, Parliament passed the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 that banned discrimination based on sex, including in education. The trustees then applied to the Secretary of State for Education to admit women into the scholarship, and in 1976 the request was granted. In 1977, women were finally admitted to the full scholarship.
Before Parliament passed the 1975 Act, some universities protested against the exclusion of women by nominating female candidates, who were later disqualified at the state level of the American competition. In 1977, the first year women were eligible, 24 women (out of 72 total scholars) were selected worldwide, with 13 women and 19 men selected from the United States.["Second-class citizens: How women became Rhodes Scholars"](_blank)
29 January 2010, therhodesproject.wordpress.com Since then, the average female share of the scholarship in the United States had been around 35 percent.
In 2007, the Association of American Rhodes Scholars published a retrospective on the first 30 years of female recipients, many of whom individually recounted personal experiences as well as professional accomplishments.
In his 2008 book ''Legacy: Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarship'' ( Yale University Press), biographer and historian Philip Ziegler
Philip Sandeman Ziegler (born 24 December 1929) is a British biographer and historian.
Background
Born in Ringwood, Hampshire, Ziegler was educated at St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, and went with the school when it merged with Summer Fie ...
writes that "The advent of women does not seem notably to have affected the balance of Scholars among the various professions, though it has reduced the incidence of worldly success." Although it is true that female recipients have not become heads of state yet, they have succeeded in many other ways as described in the Rhodes Project.
In South Africa, the will of Cecil Rhodes expressly allocated scholarships to four all-male private schools. In 1992, one of the four schools partnered with an all-girls school in order to allow female applicants. In 2012, the three remaining schools followed suit to allow women to apply. Today, four of the nine scholarships allocated to South Africa are open only to students and alumni of these schools and partner schools.
Exclusion of black Africans
Beginning in 1970, scholars began protesting against the fact that all Rhodes Scholars from southern Africa were white, with 120 Oxford dons and 80 of the 145 Rhodes Scholars in residence at the time signing a petition calling for non-white scholars to be elected in 1971.[Schaeper, Thomas and Kathleen Schaeper. ''Rhodes Scholars: Oxford, and the Creation of an American Elite'', 2010. Berghahn Books: New York] The case of South Africa was especially difficult to resolve, because in his will establishing the scholarships, unlike for other constituencies, Rhodes specifically allocated four scholarships to alumni of four white-only private secondary schools. According to Schaeper and Schaeper, the issue became "explosive" in the 1970s and 1980s as scholars argued that the scholarship be changed while the trustees argued they were powerless to change the will. Despite such protests, only in 1991 with the rise of the African National Congress
The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...
did black South Africans begin to win the scholarships.
Out of five thousand Rhodes Scholarships awarded between 1903 and 1990, about nine hundred went to students from Africa.
Criticism of Rhodes as colonialist
Public criticism of the scholarship has also focused on Cecil Rhodes's white supremacist views. For example, in 1966, regional committees in interviews asked a white American candidate to assure them he would not publicly belittle the scholarship after he referred to its founding on "blood money". In 2015, a South African Rhodes Scholar, Ntokozo Qwabe, began a campaign to address Rhodes's controversial historical and political legacy, with a focus on Qwabe's own views which included such statements as "dismantling the open glorification of colonial genocide in educational and other public spaces – which makes it easy for British people to believe that these genocides were 'not that bad' – and props up the continuing structural legacies of British colonialism, neocolonialism, and ongoing imperialism". Among other things, the campaign called for the removal of a statue of Rhodes from Oriel College and changes to Oxford's curriculum. While the college agreed to review the placement of the statue, the Chancellor of the university, Lord Patten, was critical of the accuracy of Qwabe's statements and warned against "pandering to contemporary views."
A group of Rhodes Scholars also created the group Redress Rhodes whose mission was to "attain a more critical, honest, and inclusive reflection of the legacy of Cecil John Rhodes" and to "make reparative justice a more central theme for Rhodes Scholars." Their demands include, among other things, shifting the Rhodes Scholarships awarded exclusively to previously all-white South African schools (rather than the at-large national pool), dedicating a "space at Rhodes House for the critical engagement with Cecil Rhodes's legacy, as well as imperial history", and ending a ceremonial toast Rhodes Scholars make to the founder. While the group does not have a position on the removal of the statue, its co-founder has called for the scholarship to be renamed as it is "the ultimate form of veneration and colonial apologism; it's a large part of why many continue to understand Rhodes as a benevolent founder and benefactor."
Public criticism has also focused on the alleged hypocrisy of applying for and accepting the Rhodes Scholarship while criticizing it, with University of Cambridge academic Mary Beard, writing in ''The Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.
History
The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...
'', arguing that Scholars "ould not Ould is an English surname and an Arabic name ( ar, ولد). In some Arabic dialects, particularly Hassaniya Arabic, ولد (the patronymic, meaning "son of") is transliterated as Ould. Most Mauritanians have patronymic surnames.
Notable pe ...
have your cake and eat it here: I mean you can't whitewash Rhodes out of history, but go on using his cash." Reacting to this criticism, Qwabe replied that "all that hodes Hodes is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Art Hodes (1904–1993), American jazz pianist
* Charlie Hodes (1848–1875), American baseball player
* Charlotte Hodes (born 1959), English artist
*Henry I. Hodes (1899–1962), United ...
looted must absolutely be returned immediately. I'm no beneficiary of Rhodes. I'm a beneficiary of the resources and labor of my people which Rhodes pillaged and slaved." A group of 198 Rhodes Scholars of various years later signed a statement supporting Qwabe and arguing that there was "no hypocrisy in being a recipient of a Rhodes scholarship and being publicly critical of Cecil Rhodes and his legacy—a legacy that continues to alienate, silence, exclude and dehumanize in unacceptable ways. There is no clause that binds us to find 'the good' in Rhodes's character, nor to sanitize the imperialist, colonial agenda he propagated."
Criticism over recipients not entering public service
The tendency of a growing number of Rhodes Scholars to enter business or private law, as opposed to public service for which the scholarship was intended, has been a source of frequent criticism and "occasional embarrassment." Writing in 2009, the Secretary of the Rhodes Trust criticized the trend of Rhodes Scholars to pursue careers in finance and business, noting that "more than twice as many owwent into business in just one year than did in the entire 1970s," attributing it to "grotesque" remuneration offered by such occupations. At least a half dozen 1990s Rhodes Scholars became partners at Goldman Sachs and, since the 1980s, McKinsey has had numerous Rhodes Scholars as partners. Similarly, of Rhodes Scholars who became attorneys, about one-third serve as staff attorneys for private corporations, while another third remain in private practice or academic posts.
According to Schaeper and Schaeper, "From 1904 to the present, the program's critics have had two main themes: first, that too many scholars were content with comfortable, safe jobs in academe, in law, and in business; second, that too few had careers in government or other fields where public service was the number-one goal." Andrew Sullivan wrote in 1988 that "of the 1,900 or so living American scholars…about 250 fill middle-rank administrative and professorial positions in middle-rank state colleges and universities… hileanother 260...have ended up as lawyers."
Quality of post-graduate education at Oxford
In 2007, an op-ed in '' The Harvard Crimson'' by two American Rhodes Scholars caused an "international row over Oxford's status as a top university" when they criticized the university's post-graduate education as "outdated" and "frustrating" in comparison to their education in the United States, specifically pointing to the perceived low quality of instruction and an insufficient scholarship stipend for living expenses. They also criticized the Rhodes application process itself, arguing that potential applicants should not apply unless they are "ready to study and live in Oxford."
The original op-ed spurred responses on both sides of the Atlantic. Other students criticized the authors for their tone of "ingratitude and entitlement," while '' The Sunday Times'' noted that it fueled the rivalry between the University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, and the University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...
and existing concerns about the quality of British graduate education. In response, the Rhodes Trust released two statements, one to ''The Sunday Times'' saying that "the criticisms…are unrepresentative of the vast majority of Americans" studying at Oxford, and another as a reply to the original op-ed arguing that "false expectations," particularly for those uncertain about their degree choice, and going to Oxford for the "wrong reasons," could contribute to dissatisfaction.
Notable scholars and career trajectories
Surveying the history of the Rhodes Scholarship, Schaeper and Schaeper conclude that while "few of them have 'changed the world'…most of them have been a credit to their professions…and communities," finding that "the great majority of Rhodes Scholars have had solid, respectable careers." Eight former Rhodes scholars subsequently became heads of government or heads of state, including Wasim Sajjad (Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
), Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (Birth name, né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 ...
(United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
), Dom Mintoff (Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
), John Turner (Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
), Norman Manley (Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispan ...
), and three Prime Ministers of Australia: Bob Hawke, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.
From 1951 to 1997, 32% of American Rhodes Scholars pursued careers in education and academia, 20% in law, 15% in business, and 10% in medicine and science. Although Cecil Rhodes imagined that scholars would "pursue a full-time career in government…the number of scholars in local, state and federal government has remained at a steady 7 per cent" over the past century. Of the 200 or so scholars who have spent their careers in government, "most of them have had solid, but undistinguished careers," while "perhaps forty or more can be said to have had a significant, national impact in their particular areas."
The highest-ranking career choice for Rhodes Scholars is education and academia, with many becoming deans of law and medical schools and others becoming professors and lecturers. Many of the most distinguished Rhodes Scholars, such as Zambian activist Lucy Banda, have become prominent members of the civil rights movement. In 1990, third-wave feminist author Naomi Wolf put forward ideas about beauty and power with her book ''The Beauty Myth
''The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women'' is a nonfiction book by Naomi Wolf, originally published in 1990 by Chatto & Windus in the UK and William Morrow and Company, William Morrow & Co (1991) in the United States. It was ...
'', ushering in a new type of feminism that has risen to prominence in the digital age.
Rhodes Scholars have had a notable impact in the fields of medicine and science. Howard Florey was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1922 after studying medicine at Adelaide Medical School
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The demo ...
. In 1939 Florey, along with fellow scientist Ernst Boris Chain, led the team that successfully isolated and purified penicillin. Robert Q. Marston, an American Rhodes Scholar who studied with Florey, was Director of the National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U ...
(USA) from 1968 to 1973. He was credited with maintaining the high quality of basic science research in the Institutes.
Human rights, social justice and advocacy
Law
Challenging some of the convictions of the scholarship's founder is not a recent occurrence. As early as 1931, Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans g ...
-born anti-apartheid lawyer and Rhodes Scholar Bram Fischer campaigned for equal rights for all South Africans. This led him to join the Communist Party of South Africa
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by the governing ...
. Fischer was struck off the roll by the Johannesburg Bar Council
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
in 1965 after he skipped bail on charges under the Suppression of Communism Act
The Suppression of Communism Act, 1950 (Act No. 44 of 1950), renamed the Internal Security Act in 1976, was legislation of the national government in apartheid South Africa which formally banned the Communist Party of South Africa and proscribed ...
. He was later arrested and sentenced to life in prison. Other Rhodes Scholars have taken on difficult social causes with more success. Fred Paterson defended workers and unions at a reduced price, before he sat in parliament as the first and only Communist party member in Australian history. In 1978, former Rhodes Scholar Ann Olivarius sued Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
over their mis-handling of on-campus sexual harassment complaints.
Education and child welfare
After leaving Oxford to write his first novel, former Rhodes Scholar Jonathan Kozol volunteered as a teacher in Roxbury, Boston. He would go on to write ''Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools,'' after witnessing first-hand the devastating effect educational inequality was having on America. Rhodes Scholars Marc Kielburger
Marc Kielburger (born 1977) is a Canadian author, social entrepreneur, columnist, humanitarian and activist for children's rights. He is the co-founder, along with his brother Craig, of the We Movement, which consists of the WE Charity, an ...
and Roxanne Joyal
Roxanne may refer to:
*Roxanne (given name)
*Hurricane Roxanne, a major hurricane in October 1995
Music
* "Roxanne" (The Police song), a 1978 song by The Police
* "Roxanne" (Arizona Zervas song), a 2019 song by Arizona Zervas
*"Roxanne", a 197 ...
conduct similar work with their organization Free the Children. Together they build schools and educate children in developing countries across Africa.
Civil and human rights
Much of the Rhodes alumi civil and human rights work has been focused in Africa, particularly South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
. South African Justice Edwin Cameron initially focused his attention on law and employment law, but later worked in the field of LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term i ...
rights as well as co-founding the Aids Consortium
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nick Kristof was pivotal in shedding light on atrocities such as Tiananmen Square and the Darfur genocide. Professor Sandra Fredman has also written extensively on anti-discrimination law, human rights law and labour law. Rhiana Gunn-Wright was the creator of the Green New Deal.
Medical innovation
Genetics
In 2014, Iranian Rhodes Scholar and front-person for indie-rock band Thousand Days, Pardis Sabeti, used genome sequencing and computational genetics to identify the source of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Another Rhodes Scholar working in genome
In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ...
research is the mathematician and geneticist Eric Lander. His ideas in human genetics, particularly mapping and sequencing, led to the creation of The Cancer Genome Atlas.
Disease and epidemiology
Salim Yusuf, an Indian scholar, conducted significant research into heart health and its relationship to developing economies. He observed that shifts in the developing world, particularly dietary changes and increased urbanization, lead to higher incidences of heart attacks and strokes.
In Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
, A. Tariro Makadzange
A is the first letter of the Latin and English alphabet.
A may also refer to:
Science and technology Quantities and units
* ''a'', a measure for the attraction between particles in the Van der Waals equation
* ''A'' value, a measure of ...
has researched perinatally infected children with HIV
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immu ...
and HIV-positive adults with cryptococcal disease. Since graduating from Oxford, she has set up a new infectious disease laboratory at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare
Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its ...
.
Sir Alimuddin Zumla, a British-Zambian, infectious diseases scholar declined an offer to take up the scholarship. Decades later, Zumla was recognized by Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science as one of the world's top 1% most cited researchers.
Surgery
After studying at Oxford, surgeon and author Atul Gawande became an advisor to Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (Birth name, né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 ...
and the U.S Department of Health and Human Services
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...
. In recent years he has devised an innovative checklist for a successful surgery. Other surgical innovations brought about by Rhodes Scholars include the GliaSite technique, a device that lowers the risks associated with radiation therapy in brain tumours.
A number of Rhodes scholars have gone on to careers in neurosurgery
Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and ...
. One of the most influential neurosurgeons of all time, Wilder Penfield, was a Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
Rhodes Scholar in 1915. Neurosurgeon Sir Hugh Cairns was a Rhodes Scholar for South Australia in 1917, whose treatment of Lawrence of Arabia led to research that informed the introduction of motorcycle helmets. Neurosurgeon Griffith Harsh was a Rhodes Scholar and created the GliaSite device.
Arts
Literature
One of the first recipients of the Rhodes Scholarship was the American poet, educator and critic John Crowe Ransom
John Crowe Ransom (April 30, 1888 – July 3, 1974) was an American educator, scholar, literary critic, poet, essayist and editor. He is considered to be a founder of the New Criticism school of literary criticism. As a faculty member at Kenyon ...
. He became a founding member of the influential Fugitive literary group. A contemporary of Ransom's who also became a Rhodes Scholar was Robert Penn Warren. Warren was lambasted by his peers who told him that the study of English literature was a soft option; seeking to rebut such attacks, he introduced new critical ideas into the study of poetry and fiction, and these ideas went on to change how literature was taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, not only in America itself. Tasmanian Rhodes Scholar Richard Flanagan (Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
and Worcester, 1984) is a celebrated author, having been awarded the Man Booker Prize in 2014 for his novel ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North''.
Hip-hop
In 2006 (before receiving a Rhodes Scholarship), lawyer and current Lieutenant Governor of New York Antonio Delgado critiqued capitalism and racial injustice under the name "AD the Voice."
Roughly 90 years prior, the phrase "keeping it real" was used by Rhodes scholar Alain Locke in his book '' The New Negro'' to describe the pursuit of in the face of mainstream media's portrayal of African American culture. Locke's work inspired the Harlem Renaissance movement, and "keeping it real" has since become a universally recognized hip-hop ethos.
Science and technology
Space exploration
After studying ion propulsion at Oxford, Dr. Jennifer Gruber
Jennifer or Jenifer may refer to:
People
*Jennifer (given name)
* Jenifer (singer), French pop singer
* Jennifer Warnes, American singer who formerly used the stage name Jennifer
* Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer
* Daniel Jenifer
Film and televi ...
embarked on a career as a space engineer. She is currently coordinating missions between the Johnson Space Center and the International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...
as an employee of NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...
.
Cosmology
Rhodes Scholar Brian Greene co-founded ISCAP, Columbia's Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics
An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body.
In some countries, institutes ca ...
. As well as winning a Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, Greene made some ground-breaking discoveries in the field of superstring theory and was one of the cosmologists to co-discover superstring theory.
Comparison to other post-graduate scholarships
The Rhodes Scholarship model has inspired successor scholarships in many countries. These include:
* The Kennedy Scholarship for British nationals to study at Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
(1964)
* The international Yenching Scholarship for study at Peking University (2015)
* The international Schwarzman Scholarship for study at Tsinghua University (2016)
* The international Knight-Hennessy Scholars to study at Stanford University (2018)
In structure and selection criteria, the scholarship is similar to the John Monash Scholarship, Schwarzman Scholarship
Schwarzman Scholars (), founded by American financier Stephen A. Schwarzman, is an international postgraduate award program for students to study at Tsinghua University. Awards are made to 100–200 applicants per year, worldwide. The program se ...
, Knight-Hennessy Scholarship, Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholarship and Leadership Program, Gates Cambridge Scholarship, Marshall Scholarship, Yenching Scholarship, Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
and Chevening Scholarship
The Chevening Scholarship is an international scholarship, funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, that lets foreign students with leadership qualities study at universities in the United Kingdom.
History
The Chevening Scholarsh ...
. As with the Rhodes, the Gates Cambridge, Yenching, Knight-Hennessy, and Schwarzman scholarships are tenable at only one university. The Knight-Hennessy and Schwarzman Scholarships similarly award scholarships to students from all nations, with a focus on public service and leadership.
See also
* John Behan
* List of Rhodes Scholars
* Gates Cambridge Scholarship
* Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan
* Jardine Scholarship
* Thouron Award
* Rise (education program)
Rise is a training, funding and mentorship network created by Eric and Wendy Schmidt’s Schmidt Futures initiative and the Rhodes Trust
Rhodes House is a building part of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on South Parks Road ...
References
Further reading
* Godfrey Elton, ''The First Fifty Years of The Rhodes Trust and Scholarships, 1903-1953''. London: Blackwell, 1955.
* R.I. Rotberg, ''The Founder: Cecil Rhodes and the Pursuit of Power''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
* Philip Ziegler, ''Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarships''. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.
* R.W. Johnson
R. W. Johnson (born 1943; Richard William, "Bill" ) is a British journalist, political scientist, and historian who lives in South Africa. Born in England, he was educated at University of Natal, Natal University and University of Oxford, Oxford ...
, ''Look Back in Laughter: Oxford's Postwar Golden Age''. Threshold Press, 2015
Books by former Wardens of Rhodes House, Oxford:
* Anthony Kenny, ''The History of the Rhodes Trust''. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2001.
* Donald Markwell, ''"Instincts to Lead": On Leadership, Peace, and Education'', 2013.
External links
*
Rhodes Project: The first in-depth study of Rhodes women
{{Authority control
1902 establishments in the United Kingdom
Awards and prizes of the University of Oxford
Awards established in 1902
N M Rothschild & Sons
Scholarship
A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need.
Scholarsh ...
Scholarships in the United Kingdom
Cecil Rhodes