Scholarship Overview

Canadian Scholars covered in Dead Sea mud leap en masse during a trip to Israel in 2008.

The Rhodes Scholarship is a postgraduate award supporting exceptional students at the University of Oxford in England. Established in the will of Cecil Rhodes in 1902, the Rhodes is the oldest and perhaps the most prestigious international scholarship program in the world.

Eleven Canadians are selected each year to join a class of 84 Scholars from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Malawi, Swaziland, India, Bermuda, the Commonwealth Caribbean, Jamaica, Germany, Pakistan, and Hong Kong.

Intellectual excellence is required of Rhodes Scholars, but it is not enough to earn this outstanding educational opportunity - Rhodes emphasized in his will that he was not interested in "mere bookworms." His vision in founding the scholarship was to invest in and develop outstanding leaders who would be motivated to "fight the world's fight" - his rallying call for esteeming public service as one's highest aim.

His will outlines four criteria to be used in the selection of scholars:

• 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

Rhodes, a British-born entrepreneur who made his fortune on diamond mines in Southern Africa, had himself graduated from the University of Oxford in 1882. He chose his alma mater as the site for his scholarships because he felt that this distinguished institution provided an unparalleled opportunity for such intellectual and personal development. Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world and is unique for its system of intimate tutorial education and residential colleges. Just over 20,000 students from more than 140 countries currently study at Oxford, enriched by the stimulating and rigorous education, and the vibrant cultural and community life. Rhodes envisioned how Scholars would benefit from the breadth and depth of this exposure, and he hoped that they would build on their education by going on to engage in work that would enact their concern for others and make a positive difference in the world.

Canadian Rhodes alumni include former Prime Minister John Turner; David Lewis, architect and leader of the federal New Democrat Party; Allen Blakeney, Premier of Saskatchewan from 1971 to 1982; Danny Williams, current Premier of Newfoundland; Bob Rae, Liberal MP and Foreign Affairs critic; neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield; Justice Eileen Gillese, of the Ontario Court of Appeal; and Dr. David Naylor, President of the University of Toronto. Other well-known Rhodes Scholars include President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Bob Hawke of Australia, astronomer Edwin Hubble, NBA Hall of Famer and Senator Bill Bradley, ABC political correspondent George Stephanopoulos, author and social critic Naomi Wolf, and Senator James Fulbright, founder of the Fulbright fellowship program.