46th Annual Report - Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in ...

CSFP InternationalWhilst its primary objective is to offer awards to overseas award holders in the United Kingdom, theCommission’s work forms part of the international Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP).In total, over twenty countries have hosted Commonwealth Scholarships since the Plan was established in1959. Many of the Commission’s activities during the year have aimed to strengthen this international aspect.Ursula Weeks embracinglife at the National MuseumInstitute in New Delhi.EDWARD BWENGYE-KAHORORO achieved hisMasters in Water andEnvironmental Management(Loughborough University)in 2002. He is now workingas a Project Officer forUNICEF in Uganda. Here hehas been instrumental inproposing changes in theapproach to water supplyfor 60, 000 people living ina displaced persons campwhereby hand pumps werereplaced with motorisedsystems.THE NEXT GENERATIONFor British students, the Plan provides opportunitiesto study in unusual destinations for whichfew other scholarships are available, as well as moreconventional destinations. During 2004-05, fiftysevenUK students benefited from CommonwealthScholarships – in Australia, Brunei Darussalam,Canada, India, Jamaica, New Zealand and SouthAfrica. Here are some of their experiences:Ursula Weekes, a Cambridge graduate who holds aEdward Clayton (far left) with students at the Mona Campus of theUniversity of West Indies, Kingston.PhD in Art History from the Courtauld Institute inLondon, has been studying on a CommonwealthFellowship in New Delhi, India, since July 2004. Sheexplains:“Through my CSC award, I am working as apost-doctoral fellow at the National MuseumInstitute in New Delhi. In addition to my researchon the interaction of Mughal and European art inthe late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries,I have helped to organise a national conferenceon Mughal painting, given papers at threeconferences and taught a component of an MAcourse at the Institute. My most recent researchtrip was to the Bharat Kala Bhavan in Varanasiwhere I was given rare access to a number ofMughal drawings and paintings in store, most ofwhich are unpublished. On such occasions, beinga CSC award holder greatly helps in being takenas a serious scholar. On the way back to the stationI was caught in a traffic jam caused by a workingelephant being driven the wrong way down theroad. Life’s never uneventful here!”Edward Clayton, who commenced an MA inHeritage Studies at the Mona Campus of theUniversity of the West Indies in September 2005,gives an overview of his visit so far:“I am very grateful for the opportunity theCommonwealth Scholarship has provided me,and I have taken every opportunity to make themost of it. Studying landscape history, oral history,museums and archives, all in the context of WestIndian history, has been fascinating. I have alsogained a new perspective on British history,learning of the extensive links between these twoareas of the world.My course has taken me on several fieldtrips,as well as allowing me to get to know Kingston,an important colonial capital with a rich andinteresting history. I have also participated inswimming, football and athletics teams for myhall of residence, and have travelled into thecountryside, including visiting a forgotten Jewishgraveyard that we had to reach using cutlasses.Over the summer I shall be working in thenational library of Trinidad as part of my course.Once back in the UK, I am considering a return toinner-city youth work where I hope to disseminatesome of my education; alternatively, I would liketo pursue an academic vocation and attempt to fillwhat I see as a void in British history, that of ourinvolvement in the Caribbean.”The greatest number of scholarships offered toBritish students is for study in Canada; which is alsothe second biggest contributor to the Plan. During2004-05, forty British scholars were studying atCanadian universities as part of the Plan. NewZealand is also a regular contributor. One such awardholder is Michelle Carter, an MA graduate of theUniversity of Plymouth, who is studying for a PhD inMarine Biology at Victoria University of Wellington.Michelle describes some of her experiences:14 Commonwealth Scholarship Commission