Commonwealth Scholarship 2020: As we all know, the Commonwealth of Nations is a combined association of 54 countries across the world. They offer various schemes and scholarships to their member nations. The scholarship plan offered by the Commonwealth of Nations is called the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP). Under this plan, the respective governmental heads of the commonwealth nations provide facilities in terms of scholarship schemes to citizens of their nations. In this regard, India offers Commonwealth scholarships to its citizens for pursuing courses or studies at three locations abroad, namely the UK, New Zealand and Singapore. In India, this is jointly collaborated by the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission in association with the British Council, Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), India. This article gives detail information about Commonwealth Scholarship, including its eligibility criteria, application process, documents required, rewards and benefits.
Commonwealth Scholarship – United Kingdom (U.K)
Candidates should note that the Commonwealth scholarship offered for studies in the U.K are provided for low and mid-income countries. The U.K Department for International Development (DFID) promotes study scholarships in the country by raising funds for the same. The department aims at tapping the best talent and facilitating seats for them to continue their research and studies, basically by funding monetary aspects of their tenure in the U.K.
The Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CSC) offers two types of scholarships:
- Commonwealth Masters’ Scholarship
- Commonwealth PhD Scholarships
The DFID provides scholarships which are categorised into six unique themes for the sake of convenience. They are:
- Science and technology for the purpose of development
- Setting up robust healthcare systems and extending capacities.
- Global promotion of peace and prosperity
- Strengthening global security, promoting peaceful ties and extending good governance practices.
- Crisis management and tackling global crisis situations.
- Providing worldwide access, inclusion of best practices and envisaging wide array of opportunities.
The following programs are offered under Commonwealth scholarships in the U.K:
- Scholarships for pursuing Master’s and PhD programs at U.K universities.
- Scholarships accredited as ‘Split-site’, mainly for pursuing split-site PhD course at U.K universities.
- Scholarships under the sharing scheme for doing Master’s in U.K universities.
- U.K Master degree courses can be pursued from candidate’s home country also through the distance learning scholarships.
- For the purpose of early career academics, academic fellowships are granted at U.K universities.
- Working professionals in the mid-level of their career can effectively utilize their time at any U.K host university. For this purpose, Professional Fellowships are awarded.
- At U.K hospitals in particular, Medical Fellowships are granted for doctors and dentists.
Commonwealth Scholarship – U.K – Eligibility Criteria
Master’s Course
- The citizenship of the applicant should be dictated by one of these – either a citizen of the Commonwealth nation/refugee/ person protected under British government ordinance/ a permanent citizen of one of the commonwealth group of developing nations.
- Candidate should have solely applied for studies in U.K universities through the Commonwealth scholarship alone. He/she should not have resorted to applying for any university in U.K OR India previously at the time of applying for this scholarship.
- Candidates who have come to the U.K for purposes of study at a U.K university either through sponsorship/ scholarship/ on their own expense at least from the past six months are deemed eligible to apply.
- All applicants should be below the age group of 40 years.
- Candidates must hold a bachelors’ degree with a minimum of 60% in social science subjects and 65% and above in science subjects to qualify for this scholarship.
- Candidates must be financially in a position to bear the education costs related to their study and stay at the U.K, even without the offer of a scholarship.
- All applications or scholarships are processed through nominations. In this regard, candidates should have already sought admission with a university that has been enlisted by the Commonwealth scholarship commission in the U.K to seek scholarship assistance.
PhD Course
- All applicants should be below the age group of 40 years.
- Candidates must hold a masters’ degree/ should be on the verge of completing a masters’ degree/ with minimum 60% in social science subjects and 65% and above in science subjects to qualify for this scholarship.
- Candidate should not have applied to a PhD course/ Mphil course [leading to a PhD degree] previously either in a U.K university or in India.
- Candidates must be financially in a position to bear the education costs related to their study and stay at the U.K, even without the offer of a scholarship.
- The citizenship of the applicant should be dictated by one of these – either a citizen of the Commonwealth nation/refugee/ person protected under British government ordinance/ a permanent citizen of one of the commonwealth group of developing nations.
- Candidates should have already sought admission with a university that has been enlisted by the Commonwealth scholarship commission in the U.K to seek scholarship assistance.
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Commonwealth Scholarship – U.K – Application Procedure
The application time period usually commences in the month of December. The application process is common to both Master’s and PhD courses and is as follows:
- Candidates first need to apply through the portal of MHRD, India.
- Next, candidates need to apply through the ECAS [Electronic Application System] of commonwealth scholarship commissions.
Candidates should be aware of program tenure – It is generally 1 year for masters’ program and 3-4 years for PhD programs. The steps are given below:
- List out universities from DFID portal of the U.K government website. There are more than 90 universities under this scholarship umbrella. These universities basically provide part of the funds to the Commonwealth scholarship commission owing to internal agreements. Thus, in this way scholarships get offered to the right candidates from the lower and mid-level income holding countries of the commonwealth list of nations.
- Now that candidates have a brief idea of how scholarship amount is pooled in, next comes the actual procedural steps to apply. Search for a nominating body and apply for commonwealth scholarships in the U.K through them. No direct applications are entertained by CSC and applications shall be shortlisted through nominating bodies only. Now, here is the list of nominating bodies through which a candidate can apply:
- National agencies for nomination like MHRD, Higher education department and government of India authorized bodies.
- Select universities who have the right to choose and nominate staff from amongst the pool of faculty employed in their campus.
- NGOs and charitable organizations also fall in the list of nominating agencies.
- Now proceed to the MHRD website. Check the cut-off displayed for UK scholarships and apply like-wise. The last date to apply for MHRD cut-off is generally in January.
- Now go to the ECAS portal of Commonwealth scholarships and apply like-wise. Deadline in this section generally falls in December.
- Now create your account in the ECAS website. Once registered with login credentials, fill up all details correctly in the application form and upload all requisite documents. Check thoroughly before you make application form submission.
Documents Required
The commonwealth scholarships in the U.K require following documents to be uploaded by candidates for both Master’s and PhD programs. The list is as follows:
- Citizenship document.
- Certificates and mark sheets of all higher educational qualifications attained by a candidate.
- References to be obtained from any two candidates.
- Letter referencing candidate, to be submitted by a supervisor employed at any U.K university, which is listed in the application form.
Commonwealth Scholarship – U.K – Benefits
A host of rewards and benefits await the selected candidates for the Commonwealth scholarship in the U.K. They are listed out separately in detail below:
Master’s Program – Benefits
- Round trip airfare costs shall be covered [At the time of candidate check-in from home country to university and return trip to home country after completion of course].
- Tuition fee stipend – GBP 1084 per month OR GBP 1330 per month depending on the location of stay of the candidate.
- Allowance for buying warm clothing
- Grant amount for thesis preparation and dissertation costs.
- Study tour charges shall be covered.
- For candidates who are single parents/ widowed or divorced, additional grant in the form of child care allowances shall be provided. [GBP 465 per month for the first child and an additional GBP 114 per month for second and in case there is a third child, provided age group is under 16 years]
PhD Program – Benefits
- Round trip airfare costs shall be covered [At the time of candidate check-in from home country to university and return trip to home country after completion of course].
- Tuition fees and exam fees shall be covered.
- Living allowance – GBP 1084 per month OR GBP 1330 per month depending on the location of stay of the candidate.
- Offer of thesis grant
- Study tour charges shall be covered
- Allowance for purchasing war clothing
- For overseas studies, filed work grants are offered.
- Spouse allowance of GBP 233 is provided for scholarship tenure of 18 months.
- Family allowance – GBP 233 per month [ for the first child in the family] plus GBP 114 per month [ in case there are 2nd and 3rd children in the family who are below the age of 16 years]
- If a candidate chooses to live only with his children in the absence of his spouse, a grant amount of GBP 465 per month [ for the first child in the family] plus GBP 114 per month [ in case there are 2nd and 3rd children in the family who are below the age of 16 years]
Commonwealth Scholarship – U.K – Selection Process
- The CSC is the ultimate body deciding the number of scholarship grants. All the nominating bodies submit the applications received to the CSC. The rule followed here is, all nominating bodies are supposed to submit three times more nominations than the actual scholarship offer.
- No quotas or preferences/ restrictions awarded to any country whatsoever.
- An academic advisor shall scrutinize all applications based on subject expertise and relevance of theme concerned.
- The CSC selection committee shall screen the shortlisted applications.
- Apart from merit grounds, the applicability of the proposed research work and its scope and influence are also taken into wide consideration for choosing candidates.
Commonwealth Scholarship – Singapore
Candidates who have completed their graduation and belong to the Commonwealth group of nations have a wonderful opportunity through commonwealth scholarships for higher studies at Singapore. All candidates who are originally not permanent residents of Singapore can go ahead and apply. The detailed application procedure explained above for commonwealth scholarships in the U.K hold good for all three nations – U.K, Singapore and New Zealand. Hence, candidates have to follow the same procedural norms as explained above for commonwealth scholarships for the U.K.
Commonwealth Scholarship – Singapore – Eligibility
- Any candidate belonging to Commonwealth group of nations may apply.
- Scholarship is not open to permanent residents of Singapore and its own citizens.
- Candidate needs to have completed graduation with higher grades and upper-class score or distinction.
- Candidate should have an offer for pursuing full-time graduate research work at the National University of Singapore.
- Candidates must satisfy additional eligibility in terms of qualifying for MOE [ministry of education] subsidy too.
Commonwealth Scholarship – Singapore – Benefits
Different groups of programs receive different slabs of rewards and benefits. The same has been explained below:
- For candidates pursuing masters’ degree – SGD 1500 per month
- For candidates enrolled into PhD program – SGD 2000 per month
- Tuition fees shall be covered for all candidates.
- In the case of PhD candidates, they are required to write the PhD qualifying exam within 12 to 18 months of enrolling into the course. Candidates who successfully clear this qualifying exam shall receive the additional benefit of SGD 500 per month.
Duration of receiving benefits – Owing to the considerable and satisfactory performance of the candidate, the grant amount shall be provided for the first year of study. In the case of Masters Programs, scholarship duration can be extended for a maximum period of two years and four years for PhD programs.
Commonwealth Scholarship – New Zealand
Universities in New Zealand invite nominations from candidates belonging to commonwealth group of nations to apply for doctoral studies at their universities. The most common universities where candidates can be found nominated for pursuing doctoral studies are – Auckland University of Technology, Lincoln University, Massey University, University of Auckland, Otago University, Waikato University and Victoria University of Wellington.
Commonwealth Scholarship – New Zealand – Important Points
- New Zealand universities invite nominations from CSC for PhD or doctoral programs only.
- There is a secondary option for the candidate, first to enroll himself in a foundation or basic bridge course and later apply for the actual PhD program.
- All students should comply with rules and regulations as laid down in the scholarship offer. They should leave the country soon after completion of PhD programs and decline any offer of employment with the nation of New Zealand.
- Pertaining to New Zealand scholarships, the host or sponsoring university itself decides the amount of scholarship grant to be provided to candidates owing to a number of factors.
Commonwealth Scholarship – VISA Information
All candidates selected for higher studies at the U.K universities shall need a tier-4 VISA as per rules and regulations set up by the U.K Visas and Immigration norms. The immigration requirements keep changing from time to time and candidates should stay updated with the latest norms in place. Some of the steps to apply for a tier-4 VISA are specified below:
- The U.K immigration services center has to be approached for obtaining a tier-4 VISA.
- Gather complete information related to the course, including eligibility criteria for a scholarship, course fee, documentation etc. Log into the immigration service portal and confirm your requirement as a tier-4 VISA.
- Choose your country and an interview center according to your feasibility.
- Fill up details in the online application form and upload requisite documents.
- Pay the specified VISA fees.
- Submit the application form.
- The biometrics of the candidate would be collected at the VISA application center.
- The candidate should collect biometric residence permit within 10 days of his arrival at the U.K.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the specification of documents to be uploaded along with the application form to the CSC?
Answer: All documents should be lesser than 5 MB in size. They should be uploaded in one of the following formats – PDF/doc/Docx/jpg.
2. Explain the process of referencing carried out for applications.
Answer: The referring persons shall receive an e-mail request to submit a letter once the candidate completed the formal application process. Thereby, the referring individual needs to submit a letter to the online application system.
3. What is the condition for obtaining spouse allowance under commonwealth scholarship in the U.K?
Answer: The applicant plus the accompanying spouse should reside together in the same address at UK.
4. What is the last date to submit online applications to CSC?
Answer: Generally, the application deadline is specified as December every year.
5. Can documents be uploaded at a later time after sending the application?
Answer: Yes, it is possible. The deadline for uploading documents shall be in the month of January of the following year, not later than that.