Gates Cambridge Scholarship

The Gates Cambridge Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Cambridge. The scholarship is extremely competitive with around 1.2% of applicants receiving an award in recent years.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation established the Gates Cambridge Scholarships in 2000 with a $210 million donation to support outstanding graduate students' study at the University of Cambridge.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The gift is the largest single donation to a British university.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> The Gates Cambridge Trust's endowment is valued at £333.9 million as of 2023.<ref name="finstat23">Template:Cite web</ref>

The scholarship covers the cost of a postgraduate degree at the University of Cambridge and includes funding for academic and professional development. Template:Asof 2,156 students from more than 112 countries have received the scholarship and more than 200 Gates Cambridge Scholars are studying at any time.<ref name=":2" />

Eligibility and selection criteria

Applicants from any country other than the United Kingdom are eligible to apply for the Gates Cambridge Scholarships. Candidates must apply to pursue one of the following full-time residential degrees at the University of Cambridge:

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
• Master of Science (MSc), Master of Letters (MLitt), Master of Philosophy (MPhil)
• Other one-year postgraduate course (e.g. LLM, MRes, MASt)

Applicants concurrently apply to a course, college and department and the offer of a Gates Cambridge Scholarship is conditional on the student gaining full placement in each.

The Gates Cambridge Trustees use four criteria to choose Scholars:

• Academic excellence: Competitiveness is evaluated through academic transcripts, references, experience and the potential to succeed on the chosen course. A departmental nomination is crucial for demonstrating this criterion;
• Choice of course: The Trust seeks Scholars who will have an academically transformative experience at Cambridge. Candidates must demonstrate intellectual superiority and the necessary skills and expertise to complete the course which they have chosen;
• A commitment to improving the lives of others: A defining characteristic of Scholars is their deep devotion to improving lives of others as evident by their past, current and future commitment to the societies in which they will live and work;
• A capacity for leadership: Candidates must show exceptional leadership elements and a pledge to 'take others with them' as future leaders of their fields and communities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Selwyn College Cambridge Main Gate.jpg

Selwyn College, Cambridge University

Generally, each class of Gates Cambridge Scholars is composed of ²⁄₃ PhD and ¹⁄₃ one-year Scholars. The Gates Cambridge Trust uses a three-stage selection process to select its Scholars. The application process begins with prospective students applying to study for an eligible degree at the University of Cambridge, either during the U.S. or the global round. Following the initial application, each academic department at the University of Cambridge ranks and nominates eligible applicants for the scholarship. Departmental nominees are the most academically outstanding applicants for postgraduate studies in the department. The list of departmental nominees is then forwarded to the Gates Cambridge Trust, where it is divided into broad subject areas and passed to the Shortlisting Committees. Each Committee reviews the entirety of a departmental nominee and applies the Gates Cambridge selection criteria to shortlist applicants for interview. All shortlisted candidates are interviewed to assess how they meet all Gates Cambridge criteria and Scholars-Elect are selected only after the interview.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> For 2023 entry, 75 Scholars were selected from a pool of 6,184 applicants.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref>

Goals

The aim of the Gates Cambridge programme is to build a global network of future leaders committed to improving the lives of others. Scholars and alumni are already becoming leaders in their fields and contributing to finding solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems.

Gates Cambridge Scholars organizations

In 2002, Gates Cambridge Scholars organized and elected a student committee titled The Gates Scholars' Council. The Council aims to represent the Gates Scholars at Cambridge and to build a scholar community interwoven into the fabric of the university. In cooperation with the Gates Cambridge Trust, the university and various academic and professional organizations, the Scholars' Council organizes a number of academic, social and professional events that have distinguished and built the reputation of the Gates Scholars at Cambridge University. The scholarship is particularly known for its strong academic and social community at Cambridge.Template:Citation needed

In 2005, the Scholars once again self-organized to create the Gates Scholars Alumni Association, which aims to build upon the friendships and contacts that were first made at Cambridge and to bridge the gap between the different generations of scholars.<ref>Gates Scholars Alumni Association</ref> It is an active and growing organization, with members dispersed all over the world.Template:Citation needed

Controversies

Criticism of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation reduced its investments in non-renewable energy in 2016, after recipients of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship had urged the Foundation's trustees to divest from fossil fuels a year earlier.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Foundation gave Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi its 2019 Global Goalkeeper Award for the Swachh Bharat Mission<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the "progress India has made in providing safe sanitation under his leadership."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> More than 100 Gates Cambridge Scholars and alumni had condemned the Foundation's decision, following the Indian government's decision to withdraw the special status of the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Notable scholars

Name	University	Cambridge College	Year	Nationality	Field
Template:Sortname	US Naval Academy	Peterhouse	2010	Template:Flag	NASA astronaut
Template:Sortname	Harvard University	King's	2015	Template:Flag	historian
Template:Sortname	Harvard University	Trinity	2005	Template:Flag	linguist
Template:Sortname	UCLA	King's	2006	Template:Flag	neuroscientist
Template:Sortname	University of Michigan	Queens'	2006	Template:Flag	classicist
Template:Sortname	Yale University	Hughes Hall	2005	Template:Flag	journalist and author
Template:Sortname	UC Berkeley	Trinity	2003	Template:Flag	climate scientist and science writer
Template:Sortname	Jadavpur University	St. John's	2002	Template:Flag	vocalist
Template:Sortname	University of Chicago	Fitzwilliam	2011	Template:Flag	ultramarathon runner and entrepreneur
Template:Sortname	University of Queensland	Christ's	2008	Template:Flag	poet
Template:Sortname	University of Auckland	St. Catharine's	2004	Template:Flag	entrepreneur and writer
Template:Sortname	Georgia Tech	Churchill	2002	Template:Flag	toy inventor
Template:Sortname	BYU	Trinity	2008	Template:Flag	writer and memoirist
Template:Sortname	Duke University	Trinity	2003	Template:Flag	mathematician
Template:Sortname	Universiti Teknologi Petronas	Corpus Christi	2009	Template:Flag	politician
Template:Sortname	Harvard University	Emmanuel	2009	Template:Flag	economist
Template:Sortname	Yale University	Clare	2010	Template:Flag	lawyer, Second Lady of the US
Template:Sortname	University of Arizona	St. John's	2007	Template:Flag	law professor
Template:Sortname	Stanford University	King's	2009	Template:Flag	entrepreneur and civil servant
Template:Sortname	Georgetown University, University of Oxford	Newnham	2015	Template:Flag	founder, JR Biotek Foundation
Template:Sortname	University of the West Indies	Churchill	2014	Template:Flag	professor of chemical and biological engineering
Template:Sortname	University of Florence	Wolfson	2002	Template:Flag	professor of chemical and structural biology, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Template:Sortname	Yale University	Queens'	2001	Template:Flag	Editor-in-chief of New York and co-founder of Kings County Distillery
Template:Sortname	National University of Kyiv, Dartmouth College	St. John's	2016	Template:Flag	poet, translator and scholar
Template:Sortname	Northwestern University	Wolfson	2001	Template:Flag	music neuroscientist
Template:Sortname	University of Pennsylvania, Yale University	Jesus	2020	Template:Flag	entrepreneur and global health leader, founder of Cocoa360
Template:Sortname	Clark University	Corpus Christi	2005	Template:Flag	professor of psychology
Template:Sortname	University of Michigan	Hughes Hall	2001	Template:Flag	lawyer and global security consultant
Template:Sortname	Leipzig University	St. John's	2003	Template:Flag	professor of physical chemistry
Template:Sortname	Lehigh University, Carleton University	Pembroke	2014	Template:Flag	polar geographer and climate change communicator
Scott Kaufman	Carnegie Mellon University	King's	2003	Template:Flag	cognitive scientist, author, podcaster, coach, and popular science writer
Urbasi Sinha	University of Cambridge	Queens'	2002	Template:Flag	quantum physicist and professor
Rob Henderson	Yale University	St. Catharine's	2018	Template:Flag	writer and political commentator
Emily Kassie	Brown University	St. John's	2016	Template:Flag	investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker
Caitlin Casey	University of Arizona	St. John's	2007	Template:Flag	observational astronomer
Todd Tucker	George Washington University	Queens'	2012	Template:Flag	academic, political scientist, and political commentator
Yassamin Ansari	Stanford University	St. John's	2012	Template:Flag	US congresswoman
Kate Brandt	Brown University	Selwyn College	2007	Template:Flag	Chief Sustainability Officer at Google
William Greenleaf	Harvard University	Trinity	2002	Template:Flag	molecular biologist, biophysicist, inventor, and professor
Njoki Wamai	University of Nairobi, King's College London	Queens'	2012	Template:Flag	feminist activist and professor
Naomi Woo	Yale University	Clare	2013	Template:Flag	conductor and pianist
Christopher Tooley	Massey University, University of Auckland	Girton	2002	Template:Flag	academic, executive and indigenous health leader

See also

• Churchill Scholarship at Cambridge University
• Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University
• Clarendon Scholarship at Oxford University
• Yenching Scholarship at Peking University
• Schwarzman Scholarship at Tsinghua University
• Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan
• Marshall Scholarship for any university in the United Kingdom
• Mitchell Scholarship for any university in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland
• Knight-Hennessy Scholars at Stanford University
• Jardine Scholarship at University of Oxford and University of Cambridge

External links

• Coverage in the Harvard Crimson