The Rhodes Scholarship program may expand to allow applicants from Brazil, China and Russia after receiving an almost $120 million donation last month, multiple news outlets reported.
Rhodes Scholarships are currently restricted to citizens of the United States, some British Commonwealth nations and Germany, but the program’s global expansion could lead to an increase in the number of Brown students who apply, said Associate Dean of the College for Fellowships Linda Dunleavy.
“The expansion to China and other countries has great implications for the number of candidates who will apply for the Rhodes from Brown,” Dunleavy said. “It’s a great opportunity to tap into that population of students and support them in seeking other opportunities.”
The donation to the Rhodes Trust — which administers and finances the program — came from John McCall MacBain, a Canadian philanthropist and former Rhodes Scholar. McCall MacBain’s gift is the largest in the program’s 110-year history, the Globe and Mail reported Sept. 19.
The Rhodes Scholarship program admits a total of 83 students annually, including 32 Americans, to earn a degree from the University of Oxford, according to the program’s website.
The Rhodes Trust provides full financial aid to admitted students.
McCall MacBain’s gift marks the launch of the Rhodes Trust’s new fundraising campaign — entitled “The Rhodes Scholarships: Campaign for the Second Century” — to finance a continued global expansion that would initially target Brazil, China and Russia, the Globe and Mail reported.
The campaign seeks to raise approximately $177 million, according to the Rhodes Trust website.
“This contribution by (Macbain) opens up the playing field because the Rhodes is such a significant scholarship that it might even encourage other scholarships to consider broadening their eligibility to students from other countries, given the awareness about global education and the internationalization that has become a very important priority on many college campuses,” Dunleavy said.
Many of the major fellowships such as the Marshall Scholarships, Fulbright Fellowships and Truman Scholarships are not available to most international students, Dunleavy said. “There is a much smaller group of national and international awards for which international students can compete,” she added.
Some students expressed cautious support for a global expansion of the program. Fiora Macpherson ’16, an international student who identified herself as a participant in the Davis United World College Scholars program, said she supported the expansion of Rhodes Scholarships to a broader international applicant pool.
“Being a Davis Scholar, I have access to a lot of avenues, but it would be nice to have access to scholarships like the Rhodes,” Macpherson said, adding that international students also run into challenges with other opportunities restricted by citizenship status. “Internships are a bit of a problem sometimes, too, if you’re not a U.S. citizen.”
Clayton Aldern ’13, the only member of the class of 2013 to receive a Rhodes Scholarship, wrote in an email to The Herald that he has concerns about the program’s potential expansion worldwide, particularly that political complications could arise if the program expands to countries with different political ideologies than those of countries currently open to Rhodes Scholarships. He cited China — with its Communist Party leadership — as one such case.
ADVERTISEMENT
