Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world.
Established in 1902, it is one of the oldest graduate scholarships in the world and one of the most prestigious international scholarship programmes. Its founder, Cecil John Rhodes, wanted to promote unity among English-speaking nations and instil a sense of civic-minded leadership and moral fortitude in future leaders, irrespective of their chosen career paths.
The scholarship committee selects candidates based on a combination of literary and academic achievements, athletic involvement, character traits like truth and courage, and leadership potential, originally assessed on a 200-point scale. In 2018, the criteria were revised to emphasize using one's talents and caring for others. The American Rhodes Scholarship is highly competitive, with an acceptance rate of around four percent in recent years, while other countries have varying rates. Scholars can study full-time postgraduate courses at Oxford for one to three years, receiving financial support for tuition and living expenses, along with access to Rhodes House facilities.
The Rhodes Scholarship has faced controversies since its inception, primarily concerning the exclusion of women and Black Africans. Initially, the scholarship was limited to male students within the Commonwealth of Nations, Germany, and the United States, a restriction that only changed in 1977 following the passage of the Sex Discrimination Act. Protests for the inclusion of non-white scholars began in the 1970s, but it was not until 1991 that Black South Africans were awarded the scholarship due to the political changes in the country. Additionally, criticism of Cecil Rhodes's colonialist legacy has spurred movements calling for a reevaluation of the scholarship and its ties to Rhodes's views. Critics have also highlighted the tendency of recipients to pursue careers in business rather than public service, diverging from the scholarship's original intent.
History
Founding and motivation
Numerous international scholarship programmes were very much underway by 1900. Since the 1880s, governments, universities, and individuals in the settler colonies had been establishing travelling scholarships to home universities. By 1900, the travelling scholarship had become an important part of settler universities' educational visions. It served as a crucial mechanism by which they sought to claim their citizenship of what they saw as the expansive British academic world. The Rhodes programme was a copy of others that soon became the best-known version. The Rhodes Trust established the scholarships in 1902 under the terms laid out in the eighth and final will of Cecil John Rhodes, dated 1 July 1899 and appended by several codicils through March 1902.The scholarships were founded for two reasons: to promote unity within the British empire, and to strengthen diplomatic ties between Britain and the United States of America. In Rhodes's own words, "I…desire to encourage and foster an appreciation of the advantages which I implicitly believe will result from the union of the English-speaking peoples throughout the world and to encourage in the students from North America who would benefit from the American Scholarships." Rhodes also bequeathed scholarships to German students in the hope that, "a good understanding between England, Germany and the United States of America will secure the peace of the world."
Rhodes, who attended Oriel College, Oxford, believed the university's residential colleges would be the best venue to nurture diplomatic ties between future world leaders.
To this day, controversies persist over Rhodes's Anglo-supremacist beliefs, most of which date back to his 1877 confession of faith. However, such convictions did not play a part in the final vision for the scholarship. The scholarships are based on Rhodes's final will and testament, which states that "no student shall be qualified or disqualified for election…on account of his race or religious opinions".
The Rhodes Scholarships are administered and awarded by the Rhodes Trust, which is located at Rhodes House in Oxford. The trust has been modified by four acts of Parliament: the Rhodes Estate Act 1916, the Rhodes Trust Act 1929, the Rhodes Trust Act 1946; and most recently by the Rhodes Trust Order 1976, a statutory instrument in accordance with Section 78 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
After Rhodes's death
20th century
In 1925, the Commonwealth Fund Fellowships were established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships by enabling British graduates to study in the United States. The Kennedy Scholarship programme, created in 1966 as a memorial to John F. Kennedy, adopts a comparable selection process to the Rhodes Scholarships to allow ten British post-graduate students per year to study at either Harvard or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1953, the Parliament of the United Kingdom created the Marshall Scholarship as a coeducational alternative to the Rhodes Scholarship that would serve as a "living gift" to the United States.Cecil Rhodes wished current scholars and Rhodes alumni to have "opportunities of meeting and discussing their experiences and prospects". This has been reflected, for example, in the initiation by the first warden, of an annual warden's Christmas letter ; the creation of alumni associations in several countries, most prominently the Association of American Rhodes Scholars ; and the holding of reunions for Rhodes Scholars of all countries.
In recognition of the centenary of the foundation of the Rhodes Trust in 2003, four former Rhodes Scholars were awarded honorary degrees by the University of Oxford. These were John Brademas, Bob Hawke, Rex Nettleford and David R. Woods. During the centenary celebrations, the foundation of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation was also marked.
21st century
In 2013, during the 110th Rhodes anniversary celebrations, John McCall MacBain, Marcy McCall MacBain and the McCall MacBain Foundation donated £75 million towards the fundraising efforts of the Rhodes Trust.In 2015, Rhodes Scholar R. W. Johnson published a critical account of the decline of the Rhodes Trust under its warden, John Rowett, and commended its recovery under wardens Donald Markwell and Charles R. Conn.
As of 2018, due to the introduction of the Global Rhodes Scholarships, the Rhodes Scholarship is open to postgraduate students from anywhere in the world. Many of its greatest scholars have carried out its founder's later ideal of "equal rights for all civilized men" becoming some of the foremost voices in human rights and social justice. Some have even engaged in criticism of Cecil Rhodes himself. Because access to further education, particularly post-graduate education, is linked with social mobility and racial wealth disparity, the scholarship continues to attract criticism; however, the scholarship's recent partnership with the Atlantic Philanthropies is intended to help address those issues.
In 2019, University of Tennessee graduate Hera Jay Brown became the first transgender woman to be selected for a Rhodes Scholarship. Two non-binary scholars were also selected for the 2020 class.
Selection and selectivity
Selection criteria
Since 2018, the same criteria Rhodes specified in his will underwent revision and has remained in place:- literary and scholastic attainments
- energy to use one's talents to the full
- truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship
- moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one's fellow beings
An early change was the elimination of the scholarships for Germany during the First and Second World Wars. No German scholars were chosen from 1914 to 1929, nor from 1940 to 1969. A change occurred in 1929, when an Act of Parliament established a fund separate from the original proceeds of Rhodes's will and made it possible to expand the number of scholarships. Between 1993 and 1995, scholarships were extended to other countries in the European Community.