42nd Annual Report - Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in ...

RECRUITMENT & SELECTION
The Selection Process
Selection of Commonwealth award
holders is intended to be open,
thorough and based on merit. It is
also intended to reflect the views
of both home country and the UK.
Each nominating agency is asked
to nominate a specified number of
candidates to the UK by 31
December each year. In many
cases, these are selected from
literally hundreds of applications.
Each nomination is then assessed
by a specialist adviser, from the
Commission’s Panel of Advisers
(see pages 40-41). Advisers are
asked to comment both on the
quality and relevance of the
application, and the suitability of
the host institution proposed.
Finally applications, together with
advisers’ grades and referees
reports, are considered by a
selection committee of five
Commission members in February
or early March. In an average
year, the Commission hope to offer
awards to between one-third and
one half of those nominated.
Regional quotas
SELECTIONS IN 2001
Region Target% Actual%
Sub-Saharan Africa 50 51
South Asia 30 31
Others 20 18
The number of new awards taken up in 2001 rose from 239 to 291 – an increase of
22%. The main reason for this was an increase in funding from the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office, after a dip in previous years; awards taken up in FCO funded
countries rose from 20 in the previous year to 78. The number of awards taken up by
candidates from developing countries declined slightly, from 221 to 215.
Regional Quotas
The Commission does not allocate specific numbers of awards to any particular
country, believing this to be the best way to ensure an open competition, based on
merit. It does, however, have loose quotas for the division of general scholarships
between developing regions.
Our review of CSFP activity for DFID proposed new selection targets from the 2001
competition. The proportion for sub-Saharan Africa, which had previously been set at
45%, was increased to 50%. The quota for Southern Asia remained unchanged at 30%
and that for ‘other’ regions of the developing Commonwealth reduced to 20%. This
decision reflected the welcome increase in good quality candidates from Africa –
particularly following the increased participation of South Africa and return of Nigeria
to the Commonwealth following their period of suspension. The declining proportion
of awards for ‘other’ regions reflects the growing relative prosperity in these areas.
In fact, the new targets were met almost exactly. Sub-Saharan Africa took 51% of
places – a welcome development following several years in the 1990’s when it had
failed to meet its target. Southern Asia was virtually on target at 31%, following an
artificially low intake in 2000 due to the temporary exclusion of Pakistan. Other
regions accounted for 18% of developing country awards.
For the smaller Commonwealth Academic Staff Scholarships competition, our review
for DFID had proposed an even greater concentration of awards on those countries
towards the bottom of the United Nations Human Development Index. This scheme
concentrates particularly on developing junior staff in universities. Since the demand
is primarily for doctoral study, the cost of each specific award is relatively high, and
eligibility is therefore closely monitored to ensure that resources
are concentrated on areas in greatest need. Our proposal was
that countries in sub-Saharan Africa or the lowest third of the
index should henceforth receive at least 90% of awards,
compared with only 55% five years ago. We are pleased to
report that 94% of those selected for CASS in 2001 were from
sub-Saharan Africa or Low HDI countries. A major factor in
this increase was the exclusion, for the first time, of Sri Lanka from the competition.
Sri Lankans were, however, invited to nominate candidates for the Fellowships
scheme.
Type of Course
Awards Taught% Research%
FCO Funded
General Scholarships 59 41
DFID Funded
General Scholarships 49 51
CASS 15 85
Total 47 53
Selection by Course Type
In recent years there has been a movement away from doctoral
study – which has traditionally accounted for the majority of
awards under the scheme – to shorter, mostly one-year courses.
In 1996, the Commission introduced a policy that at least 40% of
its general scholarships would be for taught courses. Our review
of activities proposed that this should increase to 50% in future.
This was supported by a survey of nominating agencies in
developing countries.
Although implementation of this target was scheduled for 2002,
the target was largely reached this year, with 49% of DFID funded general
scholarships being for taught courses. This trend was even stronger in selections for
FCO countries, where the sponsor had expressed particular preference for one-year
courses. In fact, the majority of the 41% of selections for doctoral work were jointly
CSC Annual Report page 20