Fifty new scholars have been selected in the international round of the scholarship.
Fifty Gates Cambridge Scholars from 23 countries have been selected to study at the University of Cambridge this October, including the first from the Caribbean island of Grenada.
Competition for the Scholarships was intense. The 50 successful candidates were selected from a total pool of 4,500 applicants on the basis of their intellectual ability, leadership capacity, academic fit with Cambridge, and their commitment to improving the lives of others. Departments in Cambridge ranked more than 350 candidates for the Scholarships and, of these, 110 were interviewed in late March at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge (in person, by Skype or by telephone).
The new Scholars include Palestinian education lecturer Mona Jebril, who had to deal with power cuts during her phone interview from the Gaza strip. Despite technical difficulties, Mona, who is currently lecturing at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, impressed the Gates Cambridge interview panel and will undertake a PhD in Education at Cambridge which looks at the impact of the Arab Spring on the future of Gazan universities.
The group also includes the very first Gates Cambridge Scholar from Grenada. Jill Paterson, who is completing a BA in English Language and Literature with Education at the University of the West Indies St. Augustine (Trinidad and Tobago), will pursue the MPhil in Theoretical & Applied Linguistics at Cambridge. Her work will involve a complete analysis of the Grenadian English Creole phonological system – the main spoken language of Grenada.
Seven of the new Scholars are from Canada, six from Australia, five from Germany, four from the US; three each are from India, Romania and Ireland and two each are from Kenya, Ghana and China.
The new Scholars have attended 54 universities in total, 22* of which now have their first Gates Cambridge Scholar.
The 50 Scholars chosen in the International selection round will join 40 new American Gates Cambridge Scholars who were selected after interviews in the USA in February.
Professor Robert Lethbridge, Provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust, said: “We are delighted to have awarded Gates Cambridge Scholarships to 50 outstanding individuals from over 20 countries in the International selection round. The Scholars come from diverse backgrounds and will pursue a wide range of subjects at Cambridge. Most importantly, they fit the mission of the Scholarship: they convinced us at interview that they have real potential to improve the lives of others in a multitude of important ways. We look forward to welcoming all 90 outstanding new Scholars to Cambridge in October”.
The Gates Cambridge Scholarship was established by the generosity of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, with the first class arriving in Cambridge 2001. There are currently over 1,000 Scholars and Alumni from over 90 countries.
*The new universities are: The Foreign Trade University in Vietnam; B.J. Medical College in Pune, India; University of Medicine Craiova, Romania; NALSAR Law University, India; Tianjin University, China; Friedrich-Alexander Universitat Erlangen, Germany; University of Karachi, Pakistan; Landegg International University, Switzerland; Al-Azhar University, Gaza; Academia de Studii Economice, Romania; Laurentian University, Canada; Université de Montreal, Canada; Otto Von Guericke University of Magdeburg, Germany; Tallinn University, Estonia; University of Leeds, UK; Primeasia University, Bangladesh; Universitatea Bucuresti, Romania; Concordia University, Canada; University of Texas Health & Science Center – Houston, US; Barnard College, US; Free University of Berlin , Germany; and University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Picture credit: Sir Cam.
