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

Shared Scholarship SchemeThe Commonwealth Shared Scholarship Scheme, for which the Commission assumed formal responsibilityin 2002, is funded through a partnership between the host university and government.The Scheme has several distinctive features:Selections are made by the UK institution forawards at taught postgraduate level only. Whilstopen to students from all developing Commonwealthcountries, it excludes those working forparastatal organisations or central government onthe grounds that this group often secures a disproportionatenumber of scholarships under other schemes.Candidates must also state that they would not beable to study in the UK without this support. Theuniversity pays the full stipend for the award holder,whilst the government, through the Department forInternational Development, covers the costs of returnairfare and tuition fees.The vast majority of award holders are from countriesin sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (92% ofnew awards in 2005 were from these regions) andtend to be from countries towards the lower end ofthe United Nations Human Development Index.Shared scholars tend to be concentrated in disciplinesthat have a direct bearing on development. Science,engineering, social science and health are some ofthe most popular fields of study. As with otherschemes operated by the Commission, candidates mustundertake to return to their home country oncompletion of their study.The scheme is open to all UK universities, but isnormally oversubscribed by around 50%. Universitieswishing to offer awards are therefore invited to bideach year with places allocated in January. It is thenfor the universities concerned to advertise and selectaward holders, although the Commission does approveeach candidate selected against development andminimum academic criteria.A full list of the opportunities available can beobtained from the Commission web site (www.csfponline.org/hostcountries/uk/sss/index.html)Mensah Owusu,Commonwealth SharedScholar from Ghana.Ngonda Saasa,Commonwealth SharedScholar from ZambiaAnnual Report 2004 - 2005 37