New scholarships are available for African students wanting to study at Oxford University thanks to funding from the Italian oil company Eni. The announcement came during a visit to Oxford by former UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, who gave a lecture on the future of Africa to celebrate the 700th anniversary of Exeter College, as well as opening a new home for Oxford’s African Studies Centre.
As from October 2011, three scholarships a year will be open to candidates from Angola, Ghana and Nigeria who want to study one- or two-year taught Master's programmes offered through St Antony’s College at Oxford. The scholarships will cover all tuition fees and living expenses, and are intended to nurture African students who have the potential to become future leaders in politics, business or public life.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Professor Andrew Hamilton, said: ‘I am very grateful to Eni for creating this scholarship programme with St Antony's. Oxford has a proud tradition of undertaking scholarship on Africa, and encouraging scholars from Africa.’
Mr Annan gave a lecture to celebrate the lead up to the 700th anniversary of Exeter College for invited guests and the wider Oxford community at the University’s Sheldonian Theatre. In his lecture ‘The Future of Africa’, he argued that the quality of the continent’s governance and leadership is the one area that will, above all else, determine Africa’s future.
During the visit, Mr Annan formally opened Oxford’s African Studies Centre in refurbished offices at 13 Bevington Road, attended by the Vice-Chancellor Professor Hamilton, and students and staff.
Director of the African Studies Centre, Dr David Pratten, said: ‘We are honoured that Mr Kofi Annan has opened the African Studies Centre in its new permanent home. This bright, modern suite of teaching rooms enables us to extend the University’s role as a world-leading centre for the study of Africa. We are also delighted to announce the Eni Scholars initiative, which offers new opportunities for African students to study at St Antony's College. Mr Annan's achievements on the international stage are an inspiration to our students and we are extremely grateful for his support for our continuing efforts to promote scholarship and strengthen leadership on the African continent.’
Mr. Annan rose through the ranks of the United Nations to become the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, serving two terms from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006. In 2001 Kofi Annan and the United Nations were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace with the citation praising his leadership for ‘bringing new life to the organisation’. He is currently the Chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, which aims to promote better global governance and a fairer, more secure world.
For further information, please contact the University of Oxford Press Office on +44 (0)1865 280534 or email press.office@admin.ox.ac.ukAlternatively,
for information about the scholarships, contact ranjit.majumdar@sant.ox.ac.uk
For information about the African Studies Centre, contact Dr David Pratten: mobile 07545971721For information about Kofi Annan and the lecture, please contact:
Carlos Oliver Cruz
Mobile +41 79 826 38 75
Or email: media@kofiannanfoundation.org;
oliver@kofiannanfoundation.org
Note: Mr Kofi Annan will not be available for media interviews. His lecture will be on the Foundation website as from 5pm on Sunday 13 February.
http://kofiannanfoundation.org/newsroom/speeches/2011/02/future-africa
Notes for editors
African Studies at Oxford University
The University of Oxford is one of the world's leading centres for the
study of Africa. In every Faculty and Division across the University
there are active research programmes focused on the continent. With
particular strengths in the disciplines of the Social Sciences and the
Humanities, where more than 150 students are currently registered for
doctoral degrees in African topics, Oxford enjoys a reputation for high
quality, relevant research that plays a leading role in academic debate
as well as influencing public policy. Alongside the vibrant doctoral
programmes, the MSc in African Studies (inaugurated in 2006) is already
recognised as Europe's most prestigious and successful training
programme in its field. The MSc in African Studies provides an intensive
interdisciplinary introduction to current debates about Africa. This
advanced degree programme provides an excellent foundation for doctoral
research on Africa and professional training for those intending to
working for NGOs, the civil service, international organizations, and
the media. As well as running the MSc in African Studies, the Centre
organises seminars, workshops, international conferences and lectures.
For more, go to http://www.africanstudies.ox.ac.uk/
For more than a decade, the Oxford Centre for the Study of African
Economies (CSAE), directed by Professor Paul Collier, has been
addressing the particular problems of the continent. Work conducted by
CSAE has informed understanding of the constraints on agricultural and
industrial development on the continent, and the causes and consequences
of civil war and corruption. It has become one of the largest
concentrations of academic economists and social scientists working on
Africa, outside the continent itself. For more, go to
http://www.csae.ox.ac.uk/
Student support at Oxford
Oxford distributed more than £12m in funding to graduate students last
year, and is one of the most generous universities in the UK when it
comes to funding its graduate students. Oxford has a wide range of
generous graduate scholarships available: Around 45% of all graduate
students and 60% of doctoral students receive full funding for their
courses. The University is committed to investing even more in
postgraduate scholarships to compete with its top international peers,
many of whom offer guaranteed full funding to virtually all doctoral
students. In addition to this, there are more than 300 full or partial
scholarships available from colleges and departments.
More information about graduate scholarships and a graduate funding
search engine can be found at:http://www.ox.ac.uk/feesandfunding/prospectivegrad/scholarships/
Exeter College
In 2009 Exeter College launched its 700th Anniversary Campaign ‘Exeter
Excelling’, which aims to raise £45m in the period leading up to the
700th anniversary in 2014. In addition to celebratory events, the
college hopes to have a series of lectures and seminars of intellectual
and academic content that will be open to all alumni and where possible
the wider Oxford University and community. For more about the
anniversary events, go tohttp://www.exeter.ox.ac.uk/alumni/events/events-info/2011-02-13-KA#
Artist and Oxford alumna Angela Palmer (Exeter alumna, 2002) will be
offering Kofi Annan and John Kufuor, an alumnus of Exeter College and
former President of Ghana, a tour of the Ghost Forest on Sunday morning.
She is giving Mr Kufuor, who will be a guest at the lecture, the gift
of an Ashanti stool. For more information angelaspalmer@gmail.com
http://www.ghostforest.org/
Oxford Thinking
Oxford Thinking: The Campaign for the University of Oxford was launched
in May 2008 by the University of Oxford and is the biggest fundraising
Campaign in European history, aiming to raise £1.25 billion. For more,
go to http://www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/
