International scholars to attend first ever pan-scholarship symposium

The Gates Cambridge Scholars Society have organised the event to link up with other international scholars from the Rhodes, Marshall, Commonwealth and Fulbright scholarship programmes.

The theme of the event, which takes place on Monday, is Leadership for Positive Change - many of the scholars involved are likely to be future leaders in their fields. Around 70 people are expected to attend.

Keynote speakers are:

Lord May, Former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government and President of the Royal Society who will speak on science and leadership;

Adele Blakebrough, one of the UK’s leading social entrepreneurs who will talk about social entrepreneurship and leadership;

Mary Hockaday, deputy head of news at the BBC, who is speaking on leadership and international challenges.

Their speeches will be followed by panels made up of scholars from different scholarships and backgrounds who will further discuss/debate the issues.

Hamish Forsyth, External Officer of the Scholars Council, says: “The objective is to bring together people who share a common desire to be agents for positive change in their fields. We recognise that leading in any challenging area requires cross-disciplinary thinking and that it makes sense to connect with others who share a similar purpose.”

The event, which is organised by the Gates Cambridge Scholars Council, takes place at Emmanuel College. The registration website has further details (see sidebar)

There are currently around 250 Gates scholars studying at Cambridge. The scholarships were established in 2000 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to enable outstanding graduate students from outside the United Kingdom to study at the University.

They are awarded on the basis of a person's intellectual ability, leadership capacity and desire to use their knowledge to contribute to society throughout the world by providing service to their communities and applying their talents and knowledge to improve the lives of others.

Some 726 scholars from 85 different countries have been on the scholarship programme since 2001.

For more information or to attend the symposium, contact Hamish Forsyth, External Officer of the Scholars Council, on h.forsyth@gatesscholar.org.