The Gates Cambridge Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Cambridge. The scholarship is extremely competitive with around 0.5% of applicants receiving an award in recent years.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation established the Gates Cambridge Scholarships in 2000 with a $210 million donation to support outstanding graduate students' study at the University of Cambridge. The gift is the largest single donation to a British university. The Gates Cambridge Trust's endowment is valued at £333.9 million as of 2023.

The scholarship covers the cost of a postgraduate degree at the University of Cambridge and includes funding for academic and professional development. 2,156 students from more than 112 countries have received the scholarship and more than 200 Gates Cambridge Scholars are studying at any time.

thumb|left|Selwyn College, Cambridge UniversityGenerally, each class of Gates Cambridge Scholars is composed of <sup>2</sup>⁄<sub>3</sub> PhD and <sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>3</sub> one-year Scholars. The Gates Cambridge Trust uses a three-stage selection process to select its Scholars. The application process begins with prospective students applying to study for an eligible degree at the University of Cambridge, either during the U.S. or the global round. Following the initial application, each academic department at the University of Cambridge ranks and nominates eligible applicants for the scholarship. Departmental nominees are the most academically outstanding applicants for postgraduate studies in the department. The list of departmental nominees is then forwarded to the Gates Cambridge Trust, where it is divided into broad subject areas and passed to the Shortlisting Committees. Each Committee reviews the entirety of a departmental nominee and applies the Gates Cambridge selection criteria to shortlist applicants for interview. All shortlisted candidates are interviewed to assess how they meet all Gates Cambridge criteria and Scholars-Elect are selected only after the interview. For 2023 entry, 75 Scholars were selected from a pool of 6,184 applicants.

Goals

The aim of the Gates Cambridge programme is to build a global network of future leaders committed to improving the lives of others. Scholars and alumni are already becoming leaders in their fields and contributing to finding solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems.

Gates Cambridge Scholars organizations

In 2002, Gates Cambridge Scholars organized and elected a student committee titled The Gates Scholars' Council. The Council aims to represent the Gates Scholars at Cambridge and to build a scholar community interwoven into the fabric of the university. In cooperation with the Gates Cambridge Trust, the university and various academic and professional organizations, the Scholars' Council organizes a number of academic, social and professional events that have distinguished and built the reputation of the Gates Scholars at Cambridge University. The scholarship is particularly known for its strong academic and social community at Cambridge.

In 2005, the Scholars once again self-organized to create the Gates Scholars Alumni Association, which aims to build upon the friendships and contacts that were first made at Cambridge and to bridge the gap between the different generations of scholars. It is an active and growing organization, with members dispersed all over the world.

Controversies

Criticism of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation reduced its investments in non-renewable energy in 2016, after recipients of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship had urged the Foundation's trustees to divest from fossil fuels a year earlier.

The Foundation gave Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi its 2019 Global Goalkeeper Award for the Swachh Bharat Mission and the "progress India has made in providing safe sanitation under his leadership." More than 100 Gates Cambridge Scholars and alumni had condemned the Foundation's decision, following the Indian government's decision to withdraw the special status of the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Notable scholars

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!Name

!University

!Cambridge<br />College

!Year

!Nationality

!Field

|-

| || US Naval Academy || Peterhouse || 2010 || || NASA astronaut

|-

| || Harvard University || King's || 2015 || || historian

|-

| || Harvard University || Trinity || 2005 || || linguist

|-

| || UCLA || King's || 2006 || || neuroscientist

|-

| || University of Michigan || Queens' || 2006 || || classicist

|-

| || Yale University || Hughes Hall || 2005 || || journalist and author

|-

| || UC Berkeley || Trinity || 2003 || || climate scientist and science writer

|-

| || Jadavpur University || St. John's || 2002 || || vocalist

|-

| || University of Chicago || Fitzwilliam || 2011 || || ultramarathon runner and entrepreneur

|-

| || University of Queensland || Christ's || 2008 || || poet

|-

| || University of Auckland || St. Catharine's || 2004 || || entrepreneur and writer

|-

| || Georgia Tech || Churchill || 2002 || || toy inventor

|-

| || BYU || Trinity || 2008 || || writer and memoirist

|-

| || Duke University || Trinity || 2003 || || mathematician

|-

| || Universiti Teknologi Petronas || Corpus Christi || 2009 || || politician

|-

| || Harvard University || Emmanuel || 2009 || || economist

|-

| || Yale University || Clare || 2010 || || lawyer, Second Lady of the US

|-

| || University of Arizona || St. John's || 2007 || || law professor

|-

| || Stanford University || King's || 2009 || || entrepreneur and civil servant

|-

|

|Georgetown University, University of Oxford

|Newnham

|2015

|

|founder, JR Biotek Foundation

|-

|

|University of the West Indies

|Churchill

|2014

|

|professor of chemical and biological engineering

|-

|

|University of Florence

|Wolfson

|2002

|

|professor of chemical and structural biology, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry

|-

|

|Yale University

|Queens'

|2001

|

|Editor-in-chief of New York and co-founder of Kings County Distillery

|-

|

|National University of Kyiv, Dartmouth College

|St. John's

|2016

|

|poet, translator and scholar

|-

|

|Northwestern University

|Wolfson

|2001

|

|music neuroscientist

|-

|

|University of Pennsylvania, Yale University

|Jesus

|2020

|

|entrepreneur and global health leader, founder of Cocoa360

|-

|

|Clark University

|Corpus Christi

|2005

|

|professor of psychology

|-

|

|University of Michigan

|Hughes Hall

|2001

|

|lawyer and global security consultant

|-

|

|Leipzig University

|St. John's

|2003

|

|professor of physical chemistry

|-

|

|Lehigh University, Carleton University

|Pembroke

|2014

|

|polar geographer and climate change communicator

|-

|Scott Kaufman

|Carnegie Mellon University

|King's

|2003

|

|cognitive scientist, author, podcaster, coach, and popular science writer

|-

|Urbasi Sinha

|University of Cambridge

|Queens'

|2002

|

|quantum physicist and professor

|-

|Rob Henderson

|Yale University

|St. Catharine's

|2018

|

|writer and political commentator

|-

|Emily Kassie

|Brown University

|St. John's

|2016

|

|investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker

|-

|Caitlin Casey

|University of Arizona

|St. John's

|2007

|

|observational astronomer

|-

|Todd Tucker

|George Washington University

|Queens'

|2012

|

|academic, political scientist, and political commentator

|-

|-

|Yassamin Ansari

|Stanford University

|St. John's

|2012

|

|US congresswoman

|-

|Kate Brandt

|Brown University

|Selwyn College

|2007

|

|Chief Sustainability Officer at Google

|-

|William Greenleaf

|Harvard University

|Trinity

|2002

|

|molecular biologist, biophysicist, inventor, and professor

|-

|Njoki Wamai

|University of Nairobi, King's College London

|Queens'

|2012

|

|feminist activist and professor

|-

|Naomi Woo

|Yale University

|Clare

|2013

|

|conductor and pianist

|-

|Christopher Tooley

|Massey University, University of Auckland

|Girton

|2002

|

|academic, executive and indigenous health leader

|}

See also

  • Churchill Scholarship at Cambridge University
  • Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University
  • Clarendon Scholarship at Oxford University
  • Yenching Scholarship at Peking University
  • Schwarzman Scholarship at Tsinghua University
  • Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan
  • Marshall Scholarship for any university in the United Kingdom
  • Mitchell Scholarship for any university in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland
  • Knight-Hennessy Scholars at Stanford University
  • Jardine Scholarship at University of Oxford and University of Cambridge

References

  • Coverage in the Harvard Crimson