New scholarships for Chinese postgraduates to study at Imperial College London are launched

By John-Paul Jones
Friday 28 October 2011

Imperial College London and the China Scholarship Council (CSC) have created a new scholarship programme to allow the most talented Chinese postgraduate students to study at Imperial.

An agreement signed yesterday establishes the new CSC Imperial Scholarships, with an initial 15 full scholarships being available next academic year. They will enable Chinese students of outstanding academic merit and potential to study towards a PhD at Imperial.

The scholarships are supported jointly and equally by both Imperial and the CSC, which is a non-profit institution supporting the exchange of students between China and other countries. They will cover all tuition fee costs, provide an allowance to cover maintenance and additional costs, and include a return air fare for the student.

The agreement establishing the scholarships was signed at Lancaster House in London by Imperial’s Rector Sir Keith O’Nions and Liu Jinghui, Secretary-General, China Scholarship Council. It was witnessed by David Willetts MP, the UK’s Minister of State for Universities and Science and Yuan Guiren, China’s Minister of Education.

Imperial’s Rector Sir Keith O’Nions said:

"Imperial is committed to attracting the very best students and staff from around the world. We’re fortunate that Chinese students are well represented within our community and we’re very excited by this opportunity to deepen and extend our strategic relationship with China. These scholarships will ensure there is no barrier for some of the most talented Chinese students to come and develop their talents at Imperial."

The agreement lays out plans for there to be 15 scholarships per year over three years, beginning in October 2012. The scholarships will support either three years of study for a PhD or four years in certain cases where the student is required to undertake a one year postgraduate degree prior to beginning their PhD, in any subject area offered by the College, but with a particular focus on science and engineering.

The scholarships build on Imperial’s existing deep and strong relationship with China. Over 1,300 Chinese students currently study at the College and Imperial has extensive research links with Chinese research institutions and Universities, including high level agreements with Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The other British universities signing scholarship partnerships today with the CSC are Oxford and Cambridge; Harvard, Yale and MIT signed similar schemes earlier in 2011.