SGPC teams up with UK varsity for scholarships to Sikh students

Express News Service Posted online: Saturday , Jun 27, 2009 at 0301 hrs



Ludhiana : Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) has decided to institute scholarships in collaboration with University of Cambridge (UK) for needy and meritorious Sikh students for research studies leading to M.Phil or Ph.D degrees.

Addressing the press conference, Avtar Singh Makkar, president of SGPC, informed that the SGPC had received a proposal from Department of Human Resources, University of Cambridge (UK) in the month of February, 2009, regarding providing opportunities to students of Indian nationality from the Sikh community, who are of outstanding academic ability, to study at the Cambridge for programmes regarding M.Phil and Ph.d degrees.

For this purpose, Michel O’Sullivan Joseph, Director of Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, arrived yesterday to discuss modalities for creation of scholarships. Cambridge Commonwealth Trust grants about 860 scholarships to commonwealth students, who are meritorious and fullfil the eligibility for admission to Cambridge University, UK.

Makkar said Michel O’Sullivan Joseph visited important institutions of higher education of SGPC yesterday accompanied by Director Education SGPC. Michel O’Sullivan Joseph held a meeting with Makker in which the Director, Education, and principals of the colleges of SGPC and Agya Paul Singh from Ludhiana participated. It was decided in principal to institute scholarships for needy and meritorious Sikh students to study at Cambridge (UK) for their M-Phill and Ph.D degrees.

Makkar said the amount of scholarships will be shared as 50% each between the SGPC and Cambridge Commonwealth Trust. Scholarships will be granted through SGPC-Cambridge University Education Foundation, which will have members from India and abroad.

The scholarships will be awarded only to those meritorious students, who fulfill the eligibility criteria for admission in different courses at Cambridge University (UK) which is celebrating its 800th anniversary this year and has decided to open its door to holy Guru Granth Sahib for the first time in whose august presence, an MOU be will signed in the third or fourth week of July 2009.

I'm just amazed to hear that the University of Cambridge has even pursued this.  From what I see is that England has plenty of Sikhs already, but they've actually gone to Punjab to coordinate this.  I hope the Sikhs take this as an awesome opportunity to pursue world-class education.