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The Rhodesia Herald,

January 20, 1966

ALTHOUGH  no official indication has been given by a number of Commonwealth countries, the Rhodesian Ministry of Education have withdrawn their offers of scholarships to Rhodesian students, according to a spokesman for the Ministry.

Britain is the only country in the Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme, a reciprocal exchange scheme for university graduates, which has “left us in no doubt” that Rhodesia has been excluded from her offers to graduates, according to the spokesman.

Applications for Commonwealth Scholarships offered by the New Zealand Government were advertised for in yesterday’s Rhodesia Herald. The scholarships are mainly for the post graduate studies and are tenable for two years from 1967. Candidates must be citizens of Rhodesia.

The advertisement said that under the Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowship Plan, it aimed at providing opportunities for Commonwealth students normally resident in other countries.

The Ministry of Education spokesman expressed surprise at the offer from New Zealand. He said that although they had not been officially informed by any Commonwealth country except Britain that Rhodesians were no longer acceptable, the Ministry had “tended to assume that their offers would be withdrawn”.

Even Britain did not inform the Ministry immediately, he said. A Ministry official wrote to Britain reminding them of the offer and was only then informed that offers to Rhodesian had been withdrawn.

Rhodesia had previously received offers of Commonwealth scholarships from Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaya, Hong Kong, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Ceylon and Ghana, said the spokesman. Britain offered by far the largest number of scholarships.

The Canadian Trade Commission had told him before it left Salisbury that Rhodesia could expect to receive no offers from Canada.

“But this was verbal and we have never had any confirmation from in writing. All the same, I think we must assume that this will be the case,” he said.

The offer from New Zealand had come at “about the normal time”.  Although Australia’s universities went back at the same time as those in New Zealand, no offers had come from Australia. “I don’t think we can expect any, either.”

Rhodesia offers three or four post graduate research scholarships and would not be made for 1967 because of the need to “economise”.

But they will be re-offered when “things ultimately sort themselves out,” he said.

“We have no idea at the moment of the fate of five applications by Rhodesians to Australia and the three to New Zealand for this year,” he added.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

• If you’re a gifted student from a poor background, accessing higher education can seem impossible. One of the key answers to the challenge is to critique “why scholarships are important?”
• Scholarships are designed as an award for a student’s academic performance. They help ensure that hard-working and underserved students get the chance to gain higher education by funding part of or all of their tuition and fees.
• When you are awarded a scholarship, you’ll be able to network with other people who have also won the award. As you’re likely to be in the same academic field, this can provide huge networking bonuses when you’ve graduated.