The Chevening Scholarship

Targeting future leaders across the globe

For nearly three decades, the UK Government’s most prestigious funding programme for international postgraduate students – the Chevening Scholarship Scheme – has provided over 30,000 scholarships for potential future leaders from around the world. In Sri Lanka and the Maldives, some 100 scholars have been recipients of this funding scheme since its launch in 1984. With applications for 2012/2013 now open, the Daily Mirror spoke to Robbie Bulloch, Britain’s Deputy High Commissioner in Sri Lanka and Tony Reilly, OBE, the British Council’s Country Director for Sri Lanka to find out more about the Chevening award as well as the new Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholarship Programme.

The British Chevening awards target high-calibre graduates and graduands  with relevant work experience across a broad range of fields which are in line with the UK Government’s international priorities such as public policy, law, engineering and IT. Recipients of the award have the full cost of their tuition fees, maintenance and airfare looked after in the expectation that scholars will make a positive contribution to their home countries upon their return.

Deputy High Commissioner Robbie Bulloch explained, “We want people who will go on to become leaders in their respective fields, and as such we target high potential candidates who can demonstrate a potential to become influential persons capable of shaping the future of the country. It is a very generous award because it not only pays for your studies at a top UK university and enables you to live there for one year, but it actually allows you to enjoy the cultural experience of living in the UK.”

As Bulloch acknowledged, a number of lawyers have been successful in securing the scholarship in Sri Lanka in recent years, because they have stood out in the application process and the important role that they play in terms of promoting democracy and advancing the rule of law. However, the vast majority of scholarships – which cost   £15,000-£18,000 per student per year – have been awarded to professionals from a variety of other fields, he pointed out.

 “This includes people involved in policy-making, the police, peace-building and other areas that are seen as priorities by the UK Government. We don’t want to limit it to one field or another – it could be someone from the government, an NGO or even the private sector – but a key consideration is the applicant’s ability to demonstrate how their studies will be beneficial to the future of Sri Lanka,” Bulloch said.

When asked whether Sri Lanka’s recently acquired status as a middle-income earner has had an impact on the funding available for scholarships, the Deputy High Commissioner stated that the Chevening awards still focused on developing countries. “We try to target countries that we think will benefit the most. Even though Sri Lanka has moved into middle-income status, much work remains to be done in terms of development and democracy, and the opportunities available for students here are probably not the same as they would be in Italy or France. We see that following a prolonged period of conflict, there is still a long way to go in all the sectors. So we still see Sri Lanka as a priority for British support.”

Tony Reilly, Country Director, British Council explained that their role was to manage the Chevening programme for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) globally. “It’s a highly competitive application process in all the countries I’ve been working. I was last in Iraq where we had 800 applications for 10 awards. Similarly in Sri Lanka, last year we received hundreds of applications for four awards. The Chevening has a great reputation and people know that if you’ve been a Chevening scholar, you’re probably going places,” Reilly said.

“From my experience in other countries, I can say that we’re always on the lookout for people as future leaders and we would alert them to the Chevening scholarship. But the actual application process, short-listing and interviewing is very rigorous, transparent, and competitive,” he reflected.

A Chevening scholar joins the global Chevening community which offers tremendous opportunities for networking. In Sri Lanka, an alumni association which is run by past scholars has just been formalised and the British High Commission and British Council, who are keen to stay in touch with Chevening alumni, are very supportive of the network.

Among the prominent Chevening Alumni is Sri Lanka’s incumbent Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake, the first female to hold this post, who won the award in 1989. Interestingly, the awards have seen a commendable gender balance among recipients in Sri Lanka. “At the beginning, it was skewed in favour of males and I think that was something our colleagues were alerted to. Now there is a gender balance of 50-50, and in the last few years, we’ve seen more females than males winning the award,” Reilly said.

This year the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust awards are also being launched and as such there will be a dual application process. According to Reilly, if candidates are interested in the Cambridge scholarship, they need to first secure an offer from the University of Cambridge, and they would have to move swiftly to do that because Cambridge tries to complete their application process by the beginning of December.

While the Chevening awards covers a wide array of subjects, funding offered through the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Fund does specify the areas of study, namely human rights, conflict prevention/ development studies and governance/public administration.

For those interested in applying, the British Council’s Country Director has some useful advice. “Be clear about your ambitions and have milestones towards achieving them. Either on their own or with our support, do some research into the course you’d like to follow. You need to match your interested area of study with the university that has a strong reputation. Often we find people who come to the interview and have not really thought it through. The people who stand out are those who can clearly articulate what and why they want to study and where they see themselves in the future.

Adds Bulloch, “What we do want is to assess whether the candidate is likely to return with an education that will be beneficial for Sri Lanka’s development and we will look favourably upon those areas which fit within the broad remit of the British FCO’s objectives and covers a broad area including trade, climate change, migration, development and conflict prevention.”
For the Chevening scholarship application process, the deadline is January 15, 2012. Those interested in applying for the award can visit the British High Commission website and the British Council website for details.