New US Gates scholars selected

Forty new US Gates Cambridge Scholars will take up their places at the University of Cambridge in October as the Scholarship programme continues to extend its reach to universities across the globe.

Gates Cambridge Scholars have come from some 500 universities, with over 150 of these being in the US. The 2012 intake sees the first Gates Cambridge Scholars from eight US institutions not previously represented, namely: Brooklyn College, Bryn Mawr, Reed, Oberlin, Occidental, Evangel University, and Montana and Oregon State.

Most striking is the fact that Liberal Arts colleges represent five of the eight new institutions.  Since the programme was established by the generosity of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2001, it is notable that only 54 Scholars have come from Liberal Arts colleges and this year’s increase is welcomed on both sides of the Atlantic.

Competition for places on the programme continues to be fierce. The successful 40 candidates, who will study for a variety of one-year courses and PhD degrees, were whittled down from an initial field of around 750 applicants. The shortlisted candidates were ed recently in San  Francisco by Cambridge and US academics.

Including Scholars from other parts of the world, there will be 90 Gates Cambridge Scholars starting postgraduate study or research in October 2012. At any one time there are almost 250 Gates Cambridge Scholars at the University Cambridge.

Professor Robert Lethbridge, Provost (CEO) of the Gates Cambridge Trust, said: “We are delighted to announce our new US Scholars. They are an outstanding group of individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds.  They have enormous potential, both academically and in meeting the challenge of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship to ’improve the lives of others’ ."