The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) is an international programme under which

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

governments offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries.

History

The plan was originally proposed by Canadian statesman

Sidney Earle Smith Sidney Earle Smith, (March 9, 1897 – March 17, 1959) was an academic and Canada's Secretary of State for External Affairs in the government of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. Early life and education Born and raised on Nova Scotia ...

in a speech in Montreal on 1 September 1958 and was established in 1959, at the first Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) held in Oxford, Great Britain. Since then, over 25,000 individuals have held awards, hosted by over twenty countries. The CSFP is one of the primary mechanisms of pan-Commonwealth exchange.

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 of Great Britain and Northern Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and No ...

, which is the biggest contributor to the Plan, this process is managed by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in Britain, a

non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process o ...

, and funded by the

Department for International Development , type = Department , logo = DfID.svg , logo_width = 180px , logo_caption = , picture = File:Admiralty Screen (411824276).jpg , picture_width = 180px , picture_caption = Department for International Development (London office) (far right ...

. Since 2008, the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreig ...

no longer contributes financially to the plan and the number and type of scholarships available for students from more developed Commonwealth countries (Australia, The Bahamas, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Cyprus, Malta, New Zealand, and Singapore) to study in Britain has been reduce

Other countries, such as Australia, no longer offer scholarships as part of the CSFP. New reforms were developed to strategically align scholarships with mutual interests for business and innovation between Commonwealth nations. During the state visit of President

Tony Tan Tony Tan Keng Yam (; born 7 February 1940) is a Singaporean former politician who served as the seventh president of Singapore between 2011 and 2017. He did not seek for a second term as president in 2017 due to a constitutional amendment ...

to the UK in October 2014, Her Majesty

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

announced that the Royal Commonwealth Society of Singapore would be re-established to promote the Commonwealth and to provide new Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowships in Innovation for Singaporeans. The first Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship for Innovation were presented in August 2017 t
Joshua Cheong
and Dr Khoo Hsien Hui by the Rt. Hon.

Sajid Javid Sajid Javid (; born 5 December 1969) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the Exchequer ...

Notable past Commonwealth Scholars and Fellows include

Politics

Kenny Anthony Kenny Davis Anthony (born 8 January 1951Government page on Anthony
.) is a

, Prime Minister of St. Lucia *

George Brandis George Henry Brandis (born 22 June 1957) is a former Australian politician. He was a Senator for Queensland from 2000 to 2018, representing the Liberal Party, and was a cabinet minister in the Abbott and Turnbull governments. He was later ...

QC, 36th

Attorney-General of Australia The Attorney-GeneralThe title is officially "Attorney-General". For the purposes of distinguishing the office from other attorneys-general, and in accordance with usual practice in the United Kingdom and other common law jurisdictions, the Aust ...

Ross Cranston Sir Ross Frederick Cranston (born 23 July 1948) is a professor of Law at London School of Economics and a retired High Court judge. He is also a former British Labour Party politician, and served as the Member of Parliament for Dudley North be ...

, Member of Parliament for Dudley North, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland *

Bill English Sir Simon William English (born 30 December 1961) is a New Zealand former National Party politician who served as the 39th prime minister of New Zealand from 2016 to 2017 and as the 17th deputy prime minister of New Zealand and minister of f ...

, Prime Minister of New Zealand *

Babalola Borishade Abraham Babalola Borishade (7 March 1946 – 26 April 2017) was a Nigerian politician. He was a four time Federal Minister in Nigeria, between 1999-2011. He was known as an electrical engineer, teacher and political strategist. Early life Borishad ...

, Former Minister of Education, Aviation Nigeria *

John Alexander Forrest John Alexander Forrest (born 24 August 1949) is a former Australian politician who served as a National Party member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1993 until August 2013, representing the Division of Mallee in Victori ...

, Member for Mallee, Australia * Leslie Gunawardana, Former Minister of Science, Sri Lanka *

Hala Hameed Hala Hameed (born 6 November 1963) is a Maldivian politician and diplomat who has been Secretary, Multilateral at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since August 2020. The daughter of Abdulla Hameed, she was educated at the American University of ...

, Maldivian Minister of State *

Juma Athuman Kapuya Juma Athumani Kapuya (born 22 June 1945) is a Tanzanian CCM politician and Member of Parliament for Urambo West constituency since 1995. Career Kapuya was a member of the National Executive Council of the governing Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) f ...

, Minister of Labour, Employment and Youth Development *

Kalombo Mwansa Kalombo Mwansa (1955 – March 15, 2020) was a Zambian politician who served as Defence Minister. Political career Kalombo Mwansa became Zambia's Defense Minister on July 9, 2009. He was previously the foreign minister A foreign affairs minis ...

, Home Affairs Minister of Zambia *

Satendra Nandan Satendra Nandan is an Indian academic, writer, and politician. He is a member of the Institution of Engineers (India), and is also host of some talk shows. Early life Nandan was born in Uttar Pradesh, India. After completing his secondary ed ...

, Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Fiji *

Rolph Payet Rolph Antoine Payet FRGS (born 4 August 1968) is an international policy expert, researcher and speaker on environment, climate and island issues, and was the first President & Vice-Chancellor of the University of Seychelles. He was Minister of ...

, Seychellois Cabinet Minister * Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago *

Carlos Simons Carlos W. Simons QC (born 8 October 1954) is a Turks and Caicos Islands lawyer and politician. Career SImons served on a four-member interim Advisory Council He from July 1986 to 3 March 1988 after two previous Chief Ministers were forced to resig ...

, Member, Interim Advisory Council, Turks and Caicos Islands *

Abdullah Tarmugi Abdullah bin Tarmugi ( Jawi: عبدالله بن ترموڬي; born 25 August 1944) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore between 2002 and 2011. Early life Born to a Javanese father and a Chines ...

, Singaporean politician and MP * Michael Tate, Minister for Justice, Australia

Judiciary

* Shirani Bandaranayake, 43rd Chief Justice of Sri Lanka *

Patrick Keane Patrick Anthony Keane (born 26 October 1952) is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia and a former Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia. He will soon join as a judge on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal. Early life an ...

, Judge of the High Court of Australia *

, Former Solicitor General of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland * George W. Kanyeihamba, Judge of the Supreme Court of Uganda * Professor Vijender Kumar, Professor of Family Law, NALSAR University of Law *

Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd Roger John Laugharne Thomas, Baron Thomas of Cwmgiedd, (born Carmarthen, 22 October 1947) is a British judge. He served as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2013 to 2017. Early life and education Thomas was born in 1947 to Roger Ed ...

Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ...

Government

Mark Carney Mark Joseph Carney (born March 16, 1965) is a Canadian economist and banker who served as the governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and the governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020. Since October 2020, he is vice chairman an ...

, Governor of the Bank of England *

Michael Omolewa Michael Abiola Omolewa is a Nigerian diplomat, scholar, education historian, and civil servant. From September 2003 to October 2005, he served as the 32nd president of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cul ...

, Permanent Delegate and Ambassador to UNESCO, Nigeria *

Carolyn McMaster Carolyn McMaster is a Canadian film producer and president of CHAOS a film company. Her most recent production is the Walter Hill western ''Dead for a Dollar'' starring Christoph Waltz, Willem Dafoe, and Rachel Brosnahan scheduled for release in ...

, Canadian Deputy High Commissioner to New Zealand * Manumatavai Tupou-Roosen, Director General of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency

Academia

* B. K. Misra, Neurosurgeon * U. R. Ananthamurthy, Professor and writer,

University of Mysore The University of Mysore is a public state university in Mysore, Karnataka, India. The university was founded during the reign of Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore. The university is recognised by the University Grants Commission ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

* Gunapala Amarasinghe, Professor of Ayurvedic Pediatrics, Institute of Indigenous Medicine, University of Colombo *

Anisuzzaman Anisuzzaman (18 February 1937 – 14 May 2020) was a Bangladeshi academic of Bengali literature. He was an activist who took part in the Language Movement (1952), participated in Mass Uprising (1969), and took part in the Bangladesh Liberation ...

, Emeritus Professor of Bengali,

University of Dhaka The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently i ...

* Richard Alexander Arnold, Professor of English, Alfaisal University in Riyadh * Ishbel Campbell, British chemist researcher and lecturer. Held one of the first Commonwealth fellowships awarded to a woman. * Robert M. Carter, Director of Australia's Secretariat for the Ocean Drilling Program *

Warrick Couch Warrick John Couch (born 1954) is an Australian professional astronomer. He is currently a professor at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. He was previously the Director of Australia's largest optical observatory, the Australia ...

, astronomer, Director of the

Australian Astronomical Observatory The Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), formerly the Anglo-Australian Observatory, was an optical and near-infrared astronomy observatory with its headquarters in North Ryde in suburban Sydney, Australia. Originally funded jointly by the ...

and President of the

Australian Institute of Physics The Australian Institute of Physics was established in 1963, when it replaced the Australian Branch of the British Institute of Physics based in London.

. * John Gallas, poet and educator * Professor Alan Robertson Gemmell Professor of Biology at Keele University (1950-1977) *

Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the radical feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literat ...

, Australian feminist author; former professor of English Literature and Comparative Studies at the University of Warwick *

Robert Gavin Hampson Robert Gavin Hampson FEA FRSA (born 1948) is a British poet and academic. Hampson was born and raised in Liverpool, studied in London and Toronto and settled in London. He is currently Research Fellow at the Institute for English Studies, Univer ...

, Professor of English, Royal Holloway, University of London. *

Charles Jago Charles Joseph Jago (born 1943) is a Canadian academic and university administrator. He was born and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario. He received his BA in Honours English and History from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario i ...

, President of the University of Northern British Columbia * Karuppannan Jaishankar, Professor of Criminology, Raksha Shakti University, India *

Abu Hena Mustafa Kamal Abu Hena Mustafa Kamal (11 March 1936 – 23 September 1989) was a Bangladeshi songwriter, poet, essayist, critic and presenter. In his early life, he was a singer on East Bengal radio and television. He was a professor of Bengali literature at t ...

, poet, songwriter & professor at

* Will Kymlicka, Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy, Queen's University at Kingston *

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, Associate Professor, Dalhousie University Department of International Development Studies * Angus McIntosh, Forbes Professor of English Language and General Linguistics, University of Edinburgh * Lynette Mitchell, Professor in Greek History and Politics,

University of Exeter , mottoeng = "We Follow the Light" , established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter) , type = Public , ...

Bridget Ogilvie Dame Bridget Margaret Ogilvie, (born 24 March 1938) is an Australian and British scientist. Education Ogilvie was born in 1938 at Glen Innes, New South Wales, Australia, to John Mylne and Margaret Beryl (née McRae) Ogilvie. During her prim ...

, Director of the Wellcome Trust *

Pratapaditya Pal Pratapaditya Pal is an Indian scholar of Southeast Asian and Himalayan art and culture, specializing particularly in the history of art of India, Nepal and Tibet. He has served as a curator of South Asian art at several prominent US museums incl ...

, Curator-Emeritus and formerly, Curator, Los Angeles County Museum of Art *

Peng Tsu Ann Peng Tsu Ann (born 1936) is a Singaporean mathematician, and the first University of Singapore (now the National University of Singapore, Abbreviation: NUS) graduate to obtain a PhD in mathematics. Peng was the Head of the Department of Mathemati ...

, Professor of Mathematics,

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in th ...

Raja Ramanna Raja Ramanna (28 January 1925 – 24 September 2004) was an Indian physicist who is best known for his role in India's nuclear program during its early stages. Having joined the nuclear program in 1964, Ramanna worked under Homi Jeha ...

, chairman, Atomic Energy Commission of India *

B. N. Suresh Byrana Nagappa Suresh (born 12 November 1943) is an Indian aerospace scientist. He is presently the Chancellor, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) at Thiruvananthapuram and Honorary Distinguished Professor at ISRO HQ. He w ...

, Director,

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) is a major space research centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), focusing on rocket and space vehicles for India's satellite programme. It is located in Thiruvananthapuram, in the India ...

Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh (born 16 February 1937) is a painter, poet and art critic from Gujarat, India. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1983 and Padmabhushan in 2014 for his contribution in field of art. Early life Sheikh was born on 16 Febru ...

, Professor of Art, Baroda University *

Lalji Singh Lalji Singh FNA, FASc (5 July 1947 – 10 December 2017) was an Indian scientist who worked in the field of DNA fingerprinting technology in India, where he was popularly known as the "Father of Indian DNA fingerprinting". Singh also worke ...

, Director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad *

Sheung-Wai Tam Tam Sheung-wai (1934 – 1 January 2021) Officer of the Order of the British Empire, OBE, Hong Kong honours system, GBS, Justice of the Peace, JP () was the President Emeritus of Open University of Hong Kong, The Open University of Hong Kong. H ...

, President Emeritus of The Open University of Hong Kong *

Stephen Toope Stephen John Toope (born February 14, 1958) is a Canadian legal scholar, academic administrator and a scholar specializing in human rights, public international law and international relations. In April 2013 he announced he was stepping down ...

, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of British Columbia * Sunil Kumar Verma, Principal Scientist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, India *

Jeremy Waldron Jeremy Waldron (; born 13 October 1953) is a New Zealand professor of law and philosophy. He holds a University Professorship at the New York University School of Law, is affiliated with the New York University Department of Philosophy, and was ...

, Professor of law and philosophy, New York University School of Law *

Alexandra Walsham Alexandra Marie Walsham (born 4 January 1966) is an English-Australian academic historian. She specialises in early modern Britain and in the impact of the Protestant and Catholic reformations. Since 2010, she has been Professor of Modern Histo ...

, Professor of Modern History, University of Cambridge *

Fiona Williams Jonquil Fiona Williams, (born 22 July 1947) is a British retired academic of social policy whose research covers gender, race, ethnicity, and the welfare state. From 1996 to 2012, she was Professor of Social Policy at the University of Leeds. Sh ...

, Professor of Social Policy, University of Leeds * Kamta Prasad, former professor of economics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Journalists

Edward Greenspon Edward Greenspon (born March 26, 1957) is a Canadian journalist who was at Bloomberg News in January 2014 as Editor-at-Large for Canada after four years as vice president of strategic investments for Star Media Group, a division of Torstar Corp. a ...

, Editor-in-Chief, ''The Globe and Mail'', Canada *

Charles Krauthammer Charles Krauthammer (; March 13, 1950 – June 21, 2018) was an American political columnist. A moderate liberal who turned independent conservative as a political pundit, Krauthammer won the Pulitzer Prize for his columns in '' The Washingt ...

, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist *

Chandan Mitra Chandan Mitra ( bn, চন্দন মিত্র; 12 December 1954 – 1 September 2021) was an Indian journalist and politician who was the editor and managing director of '' The Pioneer'' newspaper in Delhi. He was also a two-term member ...

, Editor and managing director of ''The Pioneer'', New Delhi

Performing Arts

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

Social Entrepreneurs

Kirthi Jayakumar Kirthi Jayakumar (born 15 December 1987) is a peace educator, a women, peace, and security and feminist foreign policy practitioner, lawyer and writer. She is a Commonwealth Scholar, a Vital Voices (VV) Lead Fellow, a VV Engage Fellow, a Loca ...

, Gender and Peace activist, Founder of The Red Elephant Foundation

References

External links

CSFP websiteCommonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom website
{{Global Scholars Group Government scholarships Commonwealth Family Education awards Student financial aid Non-departmental public bodies of the United Kingdom government Department for International Development Scholarships in the United Kingdom Education finance in the United Kingdom