The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) is an international programme under which Commonwealth governments offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries.

Contents 1 History 2 Organisation 3 Funding 4 Notable past Commonwealth Scholars and Fellows include 4.1 Politicians 4.2 Judges 4.3 Business/Economics 4.4 Academicians 4.5 Journalists 4.6 Performing Arts 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

The plan was originally proposed by Canadian statesman Sidney Earle Smith in a speech in Montreal on September 1, 1958^[1] and was established in 1959, at the first Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) held in Oxford, UK. Since then, over 25,000 individuals have held awards, hosted by over twenty countries.^[2] The CSFP is one of the primary mechanisms of pan-Commonwealth exchange.

[edit] Organisation

There is no central body which manages the CSFP. Instead, participation is based on a series of bi-lateral arrangements between home and host countries. The participation of each country is organised by a national nominating agency, which is responsible for advertising awards applicable to their own country and making nominations to host countries.

In the United Kingdom, which is the biggest contributor to the Plan, this process is managed by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom, a non-departmental public body, and funded by the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

[edit] Funding

The UK offers:

• Scholarships for postgraduate study
• Academic Fellowships for staff in developing country universities
• Split-site Scholarships for PhD students to spend up to one year in the UK
• Professional Fellowships for mid-career professionals in developing countries
• Distance Learning Scholarships for developing country students to study Master’s degree courses

[edit] Notable past Commonwealth Scholars and Fellows include

[edit] Politicians

• Kenny Anthony, Prime Minister of St. Lucia
• Ross Cranston, Member of Parliament for Dudley North, UK
• Michael Cullen, Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand
• John Alexander Forrest, Member for Mallee, Australia
• Juma Athuman Kapuya, Minister of Labour, Employment and Youth Development
• Kalombo Mwansa, Home Affairs minister of Zambia
• Satendra Nandan, Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Fiji
• Carlos Simons, Member, Interim Advisory Council, Turks and Caicos Islands
• Michael Tate, Minister for Justice, Australia

[edit] Judges

• George W. Kanyeihamba, Judge of the Supreme Court of Uganda
• Justice Patrick Keane, Justice

[edit] Business/Economics

• Asheesh Advani, CEO, CircleLending; CEO, Virgin Money USA
• Mark Carney, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Canada

[edit] Academicians

• Robert M. Carter, Director of Australia's Secretariat for the Ocean Drilling Program
• Nicolas Beaudry, Professor of History and Archaeology, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Canada
• Heather Bell, University of Oxford
• Germaine Greer, Australia, writer
• Charles Jago, President of the University of Northern British Columbia
• Will Kymlicka, Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy, Queen's University at Kingston
• Bridget Ogilvie, Director of the Wellcome Trust
• Chittaranjan Panda, Curator of Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta
• Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh, Professor of Art, Baroda University
• Lalji Singh, Director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad
• Sheung-Wai Tam, President Emeritus of The Open University of Hong Kong
• Stephen Toope, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of British Columbia
• Jeremy Waldron, Professor of law and philosophy, New York University School of Law

[edit] Journalists

• Charles Krauthammer, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist
• Chandan Mitra, Editor and Managing Director of the The Pioneer

[edit] Performing Arts

• Walter Learning, Founder of Theatre New Brunswick
• Shyamaprasad, Leading Indian (Malayalam) film Director, President, Amrita Television

[edit] References

1. ^ E.A. Corbett, "Sidney Earle Smith", University of Toronto Press, 1961, pp 65-66
2. ^ About CSFP

[edit] External links

• CSFP website
• Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom website