E-bulletin 4: Winter 2011
What’s new at the Trusts
2012 is the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust. It was established by the University with the express purpose of supporting students from Commonwealth countries on degree courses in Cambridge. The original Trust Deed includes the signatures of HRH The Prince of Wales (now the Trust’s Patron), Baron Carrington of Upton, Lord Howe of Aberavon, and the late H.E. Lakshmi Kant Jha. In its first 30 years the Trust has enabled over 9,000 students to study in Cambridge.
We continue to expand the range of scholarships available to students from South and Central America. In addition to agreements with CAPES and the FCO Chevening office in Brazil, and with CONACyT and the Brockmann Foundation in Mexico, we are in discussions with government education agencies in Chile and Colombia. These agreements complement the Cambridge scholarships co-funded by Santander, which are targeted at students from the members of the wide Santander Universities network - there are 744 member universities in the region.
After the relaunch of the UK government’s Chevening scholarship scheme last year, the Trusts have agreed with 10 British Embassies and High Commissions around the world to co-fund Masters scholars for the next few years – in addition to the Brazilian scheme mentioned above, these cover China, Croatia, Egypt, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
The Open Society Foundation is a long-standing partner of the Trusts, and we are delighted that in 2012-13 we will be co-funding Masters students from a range of countries in South East/Eastern Europe and the Middle East - Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Palestine, Serbia, Turkmenistan and Ukraine. You might be interested in the OSF blog which airs issues of particular interest in the fields of human rights, justice, education and accountability.
In the last six months our Director, Michael O’Sullivan, has visited existing and potential partners in China and Hong Kong (including a signing ceremony for the welcome renewal of our agreement with the Sun Hung Kai Properties-Kwoks’ Foundation), North and South America, Macedonia, Pakistan, and Malaysia; he also accompanied the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, on a visit to India. Our Deputy Director, Sue Osterfield, paid a second visit to the International China Scholarship Council Student Fairs, meeting many prospective applicants in Beijing, Wuhan and Shanghai.
Other Cambridge news
In October the University held an election for the office of Chancellor, following the retirement of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. This was the first time that the election had been contested since 1950, and the first time it had been actively contested since 1847. David Sainsbury (Baron Sainsbury of Turville) was duly elected.
Sir Gregory Winter, one of our Trustees, has been appointed as the next Master of Trinity College. He will succeed Lord Rees in July. Although chosen unofficially by the Fellows of the College, the Mastership of Trinity is a Crown Appointment, made by HM The Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister.
Our alumni
The Trusts’ website is moving on to its second stage of development during the coming months. If you would like to contribute to our alumni profiles, or have any news to convey to the Trusts, please contact us.
In this year of 2012 when the Olympics come to London, we would be particularly interested to hear of any alumni who have achieved success in any type of sports! An early news item on our website featured oarsman Peter McClelland, after he rowed in the victorious Cambridge boat against Oxford in 2010; Peter last year rowed in the Pan Am Games for his home nation, Canada, winning silver medal in the men’s eight.