Bulletin Vol. 5 No. 7 Apr 1969

Commonwealth Scholarships are intended to provide opportunities for study overseas to young graduates of high intellectual promise who may be expected to make a significant contribution to life in their own countries on their return from study abroad. The awards are normally tenable for two years' postgraduate study at universities or institutions of higher learning where facilities do not exist for the study of a particular subject in the country of a candidate's permanent home. Commonwealth Visiting Fellowships or Professorships, which have been instituted by a few Commonwealth countries, are normally intended for senior scholars of established reputation and achievement. According to the Eighth Annual Report on the Plan, recently published by the Commonwealth Secretariat, for the second year running more than 1,000 students from all parts of the Commonwealth were holding Scholarships under the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan during the year ended 31 March, 1968. I n 1967-68 a total of 1,032 Scholars were holding awards in 14 awarding countries as counted in the first term of the respective awarding countries' academic year (1967-68 in the Northern hemisphere and 1967 in the Southern hemisphere). 106 were holding awards in Australia; 559 in Britain; 5 in Hong Kong; 259 in Canada; 2 in Ceylon; 3 in East Africa; 1 in Ghana; 53 in India; 1 in Jamaica; 4 in Malaysia; 1 in Malta; 27 in New Zealand; 5 in Nigeria; and 6 in Pakistan. The majority of awards went to Scholars from developing countries including 151 from India; 84 from Pakistan; 59 from Nigeria; and 55 from Ceylon. That the Plan has followed its original conception as a scheme of educational interchange between all the countries of the Commonwealth is however shown by the fact that a substantia! number of Scholars from the developed countries also were holding awards: 89 Australian, 77 Canadian, 65 British, and 39 New Zealand award holders. Detailed statements from all participating countries are included in the Report. These show something of the importance and value of the Plan as it has developed during the past years. They also show a clear wish by some countries to receive more awards at the undergraduate level. The majority of Commonwealth Scholarships are awarded to students intending to read for a higher degree, mainly doctorates. 71.2% of the total number of Scholars holding awards during the reporting period were reading for higher degrees. It is however, an established principle of the Plan that awarding countries will consider nominations of candidates for awards at undergraduate level in academic fields for which their own countries have no tertiary education facilities but, as the number of suitably qualified candidates increases, the need for greater numbers of awards at undergraduate level is becoming more pressing. I n the even and wide distribution of Scholars among the various fields of study little change is noted from the pattern which has emerged during recent years, the categories having most award holders being Arts, Social Studies, Pure Science and Technology. The number of Scholars reading Medicine has, however, increased by some 60 compared with the corresponding figures for the period covered by the Seventh Annual Report. The Report recalls that at the Fourth Commonwealth Education Conference held in Lagos in February and March 1968 a review of the operation of the Plan constituted an important item of the agenda. Interest was shown in the further development of this scheme of awards, particularly in an offer by Canada to increase by 20% the number of its awards and also in a new British project to establish a scheme of Fellowships which would enable academic teachers, particularly from developing countries, to receive suitable training and experience in Britain so as to increase their usefulness as members of teaching departments in their own universities. The Conference expressed interest in knowing the relative proportions of men and women who apply for and who are awarded Scholarships under the Plan and for the first time the figures contained in the Report are set out in such a way as to give this information. Although constituting only 10.4% of the total number of applications received during the period covered by the Report, women formed 15.1% of the number of Scholars who took up awards during the same period. In addition to Scholarships several countries have instituted Fellowships and other senior awards under the Plan, and 20 of these awards were taken up during the year. The British scheme of Medical Fellowships and Senior Medical Fellowships has continued to develop and a total of 72 awards under this scheme were also taken up. The working of this scheme of awards which is based on a large number of bilateral arrangements between individual countries is a practical example of Commonwealth co-operation in the vital area of education. — 8 —