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 th ...

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's P ...

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 European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, 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 of ...

, and funded by the

Department for International Development The Department for International Development (DFID) was a department of HM Government responsible for administering foreign aid from 1997 to 2020. The goal of the department was "to promote sustainable development and eliminate world poverty". D ...

. Since 2008, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 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

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Judiciary

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Government

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Academia

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* Gunapala Amarasinghe, Professor of Ayurvedic Pediatrics,

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* Richard Alexander Arnold, Professor of English,

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and President of the

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. *

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, chairman, Atomic Energy Commission of India *

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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 *

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, Director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad * Sheung-Wai Tam, President Emeritus of The Open University of Hong Kong *

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Journalists

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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 o ...

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Performing Arts

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Social Entrepreneurs

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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