Application for the 2020 Rhodes Scholarships for West Africa, the postgraduate awards supporting exceptionally bright students from across the sub-continent to study at the prestigious University of Oxford, United Kingdom, will open on Saturday, June 1, 2019.
Rhodes Scholarships cover all student expenses, and the value runs between £150,000 and £200,000. It costs £50,000 per annum to maintain a scholar, and it is for up to three years in the first instance. However, an extra year may be granted from time to time.
Announcing the application opening, Rhodes National Secretary for West Africa, Ike Chioke, noted: “The scholarship is accessible to citizens of any West African country resident home or abroad. Interested candidates can apply online at www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk from June 1 to September 30, 2019.”
On eligibility and selection criteria for the awards, Chioke said: “Applicants must possess a good first degree from an accredited university to be considered, and they must be between the ages of 18 and 25 years at the time of taking up the Scholarship.
“It is important to note that while academic excellence is a major prerequisite for selection, it is only a threshold condition. Other important criteria include moral force of character, commitment to service and the instinct to lead. There is no bias based on ethnicity, religion, gender, social background or disability.”
Established in the will of Cecil John Rhodes, the Rhodes Scholarship is the world’s most preeminent post-graduate scholarship scheme, and it has been providing transformative opportunities for exceptional young leaders from around the world for 117 years.
The Rhodes Scholarships for West Africa was launched in May 2017, and it is open to students from Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, the island of Saint Helena, Sierra Leone, São Tomé and Principe, and Togo.
Ghanaian, Kofi Gunu, emerged winner of the 2019 Scholarship, and commences studies at Oxford this October. He is the third recipient of the prestigious awards from the sub-continent following Nigeria’s Toluwalase Awoyemi and Emannuelle Dankwa of Ghana who were the 2018 beneficiaries.