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Rhodes Scholarship

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Rhodes House in Oxford
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Rhodes House in Oxford

The Rhodes Scholarships were initiated after the death of Cecil John Rhodes and have been awarded to applicants annually since 1902 by the Oxford-based Rhodes Trust on the basis of academic qualities, as well as those of character. They provide the successful candidate with two years of study at the University of Oxford in England, possibly extended for a third year.

When Rhodes died in 1902, his will stipulated that the greater part of his fortune was to go toward the establishment of a scholarship fund to reward applicants who exhibited worthy qualities of intellect, character, and physical ability.

Contents

Standards

The requirements for applicants are high. Rhodes' legacy specified four standards by which applicants were to be judged:

This legacy originally provided for scholarships for the British colonies, the United States, and Germany. These three were chosen so that "an understanding between the three great powers will render war impossible."

Rhodes, who attended Oxford University, chose his alma mater as the site of his great experiment because he believed its residential colleges provided the ideal environment for intellectual contemplation and personal development.

Rhodes' original aim with the Scholarship, and subsequent changes

There has been some controversy over the original aim of the scholarships, as Rhodes held what many believe today to be racist opinions about the superiority of the Anglo race, and his intention was to use the scholarships to educate future foreign leaders in Britain so that they could help spread British influence when they returned to their home countries.

In his will, he left his money for the establishment of a so-called secret society, that would enable Britain to rule the entire productive world. The exact words are as follows:

To and for the establishment, promotion and development of a Secret Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be for the extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfecting of a system of emigration from the United Kingdom, and of colonisation by British subjects of all lands where the means of livelihood are attainable by energy, labour and enterprise, and especially the occupation by British settlers of the entire Continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley of the Euphrates, the Islands of Cyprus and Candia, the whole of South America, the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore possessed by Great Britain, the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and Japan, the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British Empire, the inauguration of a system of Colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend to weld together the disjointed members of the Empire and, finally, the foundation of so great a Power as to render wars impossible, and promote the best interests of humanity.
The Rhodes Trust has since firmly rejected these parts of Rhodes's original ideals, and the last wish of the man whose money they now control. An early change was the elimination of the scholarships for Germany during World Wars I and II. No German scholars were chosen from 1914 to 1932, nor from 1939 to 1970.

The bequest of Cecil John Rhodes was whittled down considerably in the first decades after his death, as various scholarship trustees were forced to pay taxes upon their own deaths. A change occurred in 1929, when an Act of Parliament established a fund separate from the original proceeds of Rhodes's will. This made it possible to expand the number of scholarships. For example, between 1993 and 1995, scholarships were extended to other countries in the European Community.

Because the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 in the United Kingdom did not affect wills, it took another Act of Parliament to change the will of Cecil John Rhodes to extend selection criteria in 1977 to include women.

For at least its first 75 years, scholars usually read for a Bachelor of Arts degree. While that remains an option, more recent scholars usually read for an advanced degree.

Allocations

Approximately 90 Scholars are selected worldwide each year. From 2006, 11 scholarships will be suspended for a period of 5 years, and the scholarship for Hong Kong abolished, following its withdrawal from the Commonwealth since the transfer of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China in July 1997.
Country2005 (2006)
allocation		1903
allocation
USA3232
Canada112
South Africa
(originally Southern Africa)		105
Australia11 (9)*6
India6 (5)-
Germany4 (2)5
New Zealand31
Caribbean Commonwealth2 (1)-
Kenya2-
Pakistan2 (1)-
Zimbabwe
(originally Rhodesia)		23
Newfoundland11
Bangladesh1 (-)-
Bermuda11
Hong Kong1 (-)-
Jamaica11
Malaysia1 (-)-
Singapore1 (-)-
Uganda1 (-)-
Zambia1-
* Effective 2007

Notable Rhodes Scholarship recipients

See also: category

Before 1920

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

Undated

Centenary degrees

In recognition of the centenary of the foundation of the Rhodes Trust in 2003, five scholars were awarded honorary degrees by the University of Oxford:

Notable universities

U.S. Institutions With the Most Rhodes Scholars Per Year (1947-2006)
1947-1998 1999-2003 2004-2006 Totals (rough)
Harvard University 4.7 2.8 3.0 315
Yale University 2.9 1.8 2.0 166
Princeton University 2.3 1.0 0.7 126
United States Military Academy 1.1 2.0 1.0 70
Stanford University 1.1 0.8 1.7 65
University of Virginia 1.0 1.0 1.3 59
Duke University 0.4 1.3 2 40
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 0.7 0.3 0.7 39
Dartmouth College 0.7 0.3 0.3 39
United States Naval Academy 0.5 0.2 2.3 34
United States Air Force Academy 0.6 0.2 0.3 33
University of Chicago 0.4 1.0 2.0 32
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 0.4 0.8 0.7 27
Adapted from the New York Times

Former trustees

References

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