Commonwealth Scholarships 2011/2012 For Nigerians

Since their inception in 1959, some 26,000 individuals have benefited from the award of Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowships to pursue advanced academic study in other Commonwealth countries. About two thirds of awards have been tenable in the United Kingdom. The vast majority of award holders have returned to make a significant contribution to their home countries, in many cases at the highest level, making the award scheme one of the largest and most prestigious in the world.

ELIGIBILITY

To apply for the awards covered in this prospectus, candidates should:

• Be Commonwealth citizens, refugees, or British protected persons
• Be permanently resident in a Commonwealth country other than the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man
• Be available to commence their academic studies in the United Kingdom by the start of the UK academic year in September/October 2011
• Hold, by October 2011, a first degree of upper second class Honours standard (or above); or a second class degree and a relevant postgraduate qualification, which will normally be a Master’s degree AND In the fields of medicine and dentistry, have qualified as a doctor or dentist between 1 October 2001 and 30 September 2006
• The Commission wishes to promote equal opportunity, gender equity and cultural exchange.
• Applications are welcomed from the many different races and origins that comprise the Commonwealth’s rich variety of cultures, traditions and institutions.

THE SELECTION PROCESS

Nominations for 2011 Commonwealth Scholarships tenable in the United Kingdom are required to arrive with the Commission no later than 21 December 2010 in electronic format. All nominating authorities will have organised their own competitions in advance of this, with earlier deadlines and local rules for application, that you are strongly advised to check.

In order to ensure a competitive process in the United Kingdom, the Commission normally seeks approximately three times more nomin – ations than there are Scholarships available. Following this deadline, each nomination is first considered by a member of the Commission’s panel of advisers with expertise in the subject area concerned and then by the Commission’s selection committee in competition with other applicants.

Applications are considered according to the following selection criteria:

• Academic merit of the candidate
• The quality of the proposal,For those candidates from developed Commonwealth countries (see list on previous page), the potential of the candidate to lead in the pursuit of global excellence in research and knowledge
• For those candidates from developing Commonwealth countries (i.e. all others), the likely impact of the work on the development of the candidate’s home country

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

The Commission may require candidates to undertake the academic IELTS English language test as a condition of eligibility. It is the candidate’s responsibility to check with their nominating agency whether this requirement applies to them and to note that an IELTS test will only be considered valid if taken after 1 October 2010 and before 6 March 2011. As a further condition of award, the Commission, or a host institution in the United Kingdom, may require a candidate to take particular English tests and/or training in English.

Applicants in medicine and dentistry whose programme requires them to practise clinically, or to work in a laboratory department reporting on samples from patients, must state how the skills acquired by the training programme will be put into practice post-award. Such applicants can be considered only if they are eligible for registration with the General Medical Council or the General Dental Council. Information about current conditions for registration can be obtained from the GMC and GDC websites: www.gmc-uk.org and www.gdc-uk.org. Please note that the GMC currently requires applicants for their registration to obtain an overall score of 7.0 in the academic IELTS test, with minimum scores of 7.0 in speaking and 6.0 in listening, reading and writing.

Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom

c/o The Association of Commonwealth Universities

Woburn House, 20-24 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HF

www.cscuk.org.uk