Application Deadline:
Kenya: 31 August 2016,
Southern Africa (including South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and Swaziland): 15 August 2016.
West Africa: 31 July 2016,
Zambia: 10 October 2016
Zimbabwe: 15 August 2016
The Rhodes Scholarships are postgraduate awards supporting outstanding all-round students at the University of Oxford, and providing transformative opportunities for exceptional individuals. The Rhodes Trust provides the Rhodes Scholarships in partnership with Second Century Founder, John McCall MacBain and other generous benefactors.
A class of 95 Scholars is selected each year from: Australia, Bermuda, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Jamaica & the Commonwealth Caribbean, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Southern Africa (including South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and Swaziland), SJLP (including Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine), United Arab Emirates, United States, West Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Eligibility criteria for the Rhodes Scholarship
The following eligibility criteria apply to all applicants for the Rhodes Scholarships:
- Citizenship & residency: Each applicant must fulfil the citizenship and residency requirements of the Rhodes constituency for which they are applying. Please check the detailed information carefully via the country links.
- Age: Age limits vary between constituencies and range from a minimum age limit of 18 to a maximum of 28 by 1 October of the year following selection. In most constituencies, the age limit is 24 or 25. Please check carefully the specific age requirements for your constituency before applying. Successful candidates will arrive in Oxford the October following the selection process. The Scholarship may not normally be deferred.
- Education: All applicants must have achieved academic standing sufficiently advanced to assure completion of a bachelor’s degree by the October following election. Academic standing must be sufficiently high to ensure admission to the University of Oxford, which has very competitive entry requirements, and to give confidence that Rhodes Scholars will perform to a high academic standard in Oxford. Individual constituencies may specify a 1st or equivalent. Some constituencies require an undergraduate degree to have been taken within the constituency of application.
Rhodes selection criteria
The selection criteria govern selection across all Scholarship constituencies. They are:
- literary and scholastic attainments
- energy to use one’s talents to the full
- truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship
- moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one’s fellow beings.
Selection in each Rhodes constituency is by committees comprised of Rhodes alumni and distinguished non-Scholar members of the community. In general, committees will select applicants of outstanding intellect, character, leadership, and commitment to service.
Scholarship Worth:
A Rhodes Scholarship covers:
- All University and College fees;
- The University application fee;
- A personal stipend which is fixed by the Trustees (£13,658 per annum 2014-15);
- One economy class airfare to Oxford at the start of the scholarship and one economy flight back to the student’s home country at the conclusion of the scholarship.
Application process
1. Application to the Scholarship:
Applications for Rhodes Scholarships open during the spring and summer of the preceding year.
All candidates for the Scholarship should read the information about the Scholarships applicable globally, and then proceed to their country-specific page. Online application is not available for applicants to New Zealand. Please refer to the relevant country page: New Zealand.
In broad terms, all constituencies will require the following materials in differing forms:
- Evidence of academic record / transcript (complete or in progress) of undergraduate degree and any postgraduate study
- Curriculum vitae/resumé or list of principal activities
- Personal statement or essay (including, crucially, a clear statement of what the applicant wishes to study at Oxford and why)
- Evidence of age / birth certificate / passport
- English Language proficiency (where English is not the first language)
- Photograph
- List of referees (usually several are required) who can attest in confidential references to the character and intellect of the applicant, including academic, personal, extra-curricular and leadership achievements (and who should never include people to whom you are related)
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