Gates Cambridge Scholarship for International Students 2024-2025

Gates Cambridge Scholarship for International students

International students are welcome to apply for the Gates Cambridge Scholarship 2024-2025 offered by the Gates Cambridge Trust.

The opportunity offers full fee Masters and PhD (postgraduate) for students who are beneficiaries. The Bill Gates Scholarship is offered on the basis of academic excellence – it is open for outstanding International students to take on any course of study at the University of Cambridge, UK.

You will find out How to Get the Gates Cambridge Scholarship 2024 through this article as it will be explained in detail.

Don’t be fast to leave this page as the UK government is happy to invite international applicants for the Gates Cambridge fully-funded scholarships for Master’s, PhD in the UK at Cambridge University for the 2024 and 2025 academic sessions.

Bill Gates Foundation partnership with the UK government has been at the helm of awarding scholarships to international students who are considered to have soon courage to pursue their academic goals despite the financial constraints can I come with it.

The Cambridge Trust Scholarship 2024 is one of the rare scholarship opportunities for you to study PhD and Masters Degree in the UK at Cambridge University, UK.

This article will provide interested applicants with the information they will be needing concerning this Scholarship, ranging from. Important information concerning this Scholarship would be made available.

The information about this Scholarship available in this article includes:

  • How to get Gates Cambridge Scholarship 2024
  • Brief Gates Cambridge scholarships Data
  • Gates Cambridge Scholarships Eligibility Requirements
  • Gates Scholarship Application Guidelines
  • Aim of the Gates Cambridge Trust Scholarship

Brief Gates Cambridge scholarship Data

It was in October 2000 that a donation of 210 million dollars from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was made to the University of Cambridge to sponsor the Bill Gates Cambridge scholarship program.

To date, it has been the largest donation made to a UK university at once.

The Gates Cambridge Scholarships ranks among the most valued international scholarships in the globe.

The Scholarships are awarded to applicants from countries that are not in the UK to pursue a full-time PhD or Master’s degree in any subject found at the University of Cambridge.

Some of the selection criteria include:

  • outstanding intellectual ability
  • leadership potential and commitment to improve the lives of others
  • a good fit between the students qualifications and he’s or her aspirations and the PhD or Master’s programme at Cambridge University for which they are applying
Gates Cambridge Scholarship for International students

Aim of the Gates Cambridge Trust Scholarship

The aim of the Gates Cambridge Trust Scholarship is to award Scholarships to outstanding applicants from countries outside the United Kingdom to take on a full-time postgraduate degree program in any field of study available at Cambridge University.

While at Cambridge, this Scholarship allows  Scholars to pursue the full range of academic courses available at Cambridge University spread across departments and Colleges in the University.

Basically, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation offers this Scholarship to encourage talented international students from the outside UK and Developing Countries to take on any academic program of their choice offered at the university, having little or no financial burden to bear.

This Scholarship is achieving its aim, by giving hope to the hopeless postgraduate students who otherwise would not have been able to study at Cambridge University without the Scholarship to achieve their academic dreams.

bill gates scholarship

Host Nation

The Gates Cambridge Scholarship is hosted in the UK, at Cambridge University. The Host Institution, University of Cambridge is a collegiate public research UK university in Cambridge, England.

The University was founded in 1209 and was granted a royal charter in 1231 by King Henry The III. The institution is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the third-oldest surviving university in the World.

Eligible Study Field/Level

The scholarship is open to Masters and PhD students at Cambridge University to pursue any course of their choice in the institution.

All the courses offered in the institution are eligible for the scholarship.

Ineligible Study Areas includes:

  • Any Undergraduate degree such as BA affiliated (a second BA) or BA (undergraduate)
  • Master of Business (MBA)
  • Master of Finance (MFin)
  • MBBChir Clinical Studies
  • MD Doctor of Medicine degree (6 years, part-time)
  • Graduate Course in Medicine (A101)
  • Part-time degrees
  • Non-degree courses

Eligible Group

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust Scholarships is open to International Students from outside UK who are willing to Study in the UK

General Gates Cambridge Scholarships Eligibility Requirements

To become a Gate Cambridge Trust Scholarship Scholar you must meet these requirements:

  • Be a citizen of any country outside the United Kingdom.
  • You must be pplying to pursue one of the following full-time residential courses of study:
  • Ph.D. (three-year research-only degree)
  • MSc or MLitt (two-year research-only degree)
  • or a one-year postgraduate course (e.g. MPhil, LLM, MASt, Diploma, MBA, etc.)
  • Already be a student at Cambridge University and willing to apply for a new postgraduate course. eg. If you are studying for an MPhil it’s possible for you to apply for Gates Cambridge Scholarship to do your Ph.D. But, if you have before then started a course if study, you are not eligible to apply for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship for the rest of it
  • If you’re already a Gates Cambridge Scholar ( Gates Cambridge Scholarship winner) and you want to apply for a second Scholarship, you should apply by the second international deadline, and also go through the same prosedure of departmental ranking, shortlisting, and interviewing with other candidates.

For further information about the Gates Scholarship Eligibility please visit the official web page

Gates Cambridge Scholarship 2024 Benefits

The Gates Cambridge Trust Scholarship is a Fully Funded Scholarship that funds virtually everything a Student may need to pay in school.

Here is detailed information on your benefits if you’re announced as a Gates Cambridge Scholar in UK 2024

  • The scholarship provides the University Composition Fee at its most appropriate rate
  • It covers the maintenance allowance for one student (£17,500 for one year). For PhD scholars, the award is for up to 4 years
  • An economy single airfare at the beginning and end of the course inbound visa costs and the cost of  Immigration Health Surcharge

Discretionary components

The Trust also considers applications for several types of additional funding on a discretionary basis:

Academic development funding – (from up to £500 to up to £2,000, depending on the length of your course of study, to attend conferences and courses.

Family allowance – (up to £10,120 for a first child & up to £4,320 for a second child – 2022-23 rate.

No funding is provided for a partner.

Fieldwork – you can apply to keep up to your maintenance allowance while on your fieldwork as part of your PhD (Trust does not cover other fieldwork expenses as these should be covered by the University Composition Fee).

Maternity/Paternity funding – should you need it, you can apply to intermit your studies for about 6 months while you continue to receive your normal maintenance allowance during this period.

Hardship funding – for unforeseen difficulties

The University Composition Fee would vary for different types of students; candidates should see the prospectus of Graduate Studies for full details about the precise amounts.

In a situation where a student who is from the EU has successfully gained a fees award from Public authorities, they must accept this and the scholarship Trust will not pay these fees

Receiving a salary or substantial other scholarship?

If you have another substantial scholarship or you are receiving a salary from an employer- the scholarship trust reserves the right to decide to reduce or not pay the normal maintenance allowance.

It is important that you let the trust know as soon as possible if you are given or awarded any funding towards your study at Cambridge University

What is not covered for in The Funding of Gates Cambridge Scholarship Winners

Most costs are covered by the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. However, Gates Cambridge Scholarship Trust does not cover:

  • bench fees
  • costs of scientific equipment or similar academic resources
  • additional fees charged by departments for orientation activities, fieldwork, mandatory study trips, courses outside Cambridge or similar.

The Scholarship Trust pays the full University Composition Fee, therefore expects core course costs to be funded by the academic departments at Cambridge University.

Bill Gates Scholarship Application Guidelines

The basic route to get the Gates Cambridge Scholarship is to submit an application for admission to a graduate program, a college place funding and a Bill Gates Cambridge Scholarship via the University of Cambridge Graduate Application Portal.

In addition to this section for admission, the University of Cambridge graduate application form has a specific Gates Cambridge section provided which asks candidates to submit the following documents:

500 words statement about their fit with the Gates Cambridge programme

These 500-word statements would be used by the shortlisting communities to help distinguish between the candidates who have been highly ranked by their respective departments on academic grounds.

It helps the Scholarship committees identify the candidate who is academically outstanding and pose a Leadership Capacity and commitment to improving the lives of others.

It is the only part of the application that allows the applicant to state their fit with the Gates Cambridge scholarship programme.

A non-academic reference about their fit with Gates Cambridge

The reference is used in the same way as the statement – which is to reduce the number of well-qualified candidates to the few candidates who best meet the gates Cambridge eligibility requirements and criteria

Referees are allowed to paste/type up to 4,000 characters into the provided online reference or upload a separate letter. Referees are also asked a few specific questions on how they rate the applicant for the Gates scholarship.

Your referee must be someone of appropriate standing, a person who is able to answer the questions with vivid authority and who will be able and fully understand the Bill Gates Cambridge criteria.

Applicants most times ask academics (who can comment on their fit with The Bill Gates Cambridge, not only offer a third academic reference), senior figures in a voluntary organization for whom they have worked with or under, employers, and others who may comment on their suitability for the Gates Cambridge Scholarship.

Applicants are not allowed to ask family, friends or those that are unqualified to provide an appropriate and useful reference.

Other materials

The two academic references are in addition to the Gates Cambridge reference required by the University for admission.

All applicants must submit an up-to-date CV/resume.

For PhD applicants only – a research proposal is additionally required – if it has not been submitted already as part of the admission application for the course.

In a situation where there is specific guidance from the academic department about the length of words and format for the research proposal applicants are to follow this.

If you’re a PhD applicant – in a situation where your department does not require a research proposal, then you are to submit a document of about two pages detailing your plans as regards research to be considered for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship.

How to Get Gates Cambridge Scholarship 2024

There is no special way to get the Gates Cambridge Scholarship – it basically uses a three-stage selection process to make sure Scholars meet all of their criteria to the utmost degree.

Here is How to Get the Gates Cambridge Scholarship

Departmental ranking

In order to make sure only the most academically outstanding applicants are considered for the Scholarship, the Gates Trust asks academic departments in the University of Cambridge to rank qualified applicants on academic prowess only.

Students who are put forward by their academic departments are only considered the most academically outstanding candidates they have received that particular year.

Shortlisting

Once the Scholarship Trust has a list of all the ranked candidates, it is divided into broad subject areas and passed to their Shortlisting Committees.

These Committees take a look at the entire application pack of the candidate (which includes the Gates Cambridge Reference and Statement) and apply all four Gates Cambridge criteria so as to identify those who’d be invited for an interview.

Students who are shortlisted for the interview will have gone through an exceptionally competitive process and will also show evidence of meeting all the four Gates Cambridge criteria.

Interview

All candidates who are shortlisted will have a short interview to assess how they’ve met all 4 Gates Cambridge criteria. Scholars will be selected after the interview. More information is available on the interview page.

Gates Scholarship Application Closing Dates

Gates Cambridge only considers candidates in two selection rounds yearly:

Round 1: For US citizens resident in the USA only

Applicants for the Gates Cambridge Scholarship 2024 in this group must apply by 10 October 2023 for October 2024 entry

Round 2: All other eligible applicants (part of the Graduate Funding Competition)

Application closing dates and deadlines in this round are absolutely determined by The course you are applying for at the university – it is determined by the Central Graduate Admissions Office.

You can see which of the deadlines below applies to you by checking The Graduate funding competition deadline on the course directory page

STAGESROUND 1ROUND 2
Applications open2 September 20232 September 2023
Application deadline9 October 2023Dependent on your course – either 3 December 2021 or 7 January 2024
Departmental rankingOctober – NovemberDecember – February
Trust shortlistingMid-DecemberEarly March
Shortlisted candidates invited to interviewLate DecemberEarly March
Interviews24 & 25 January 2024 (Seattle, USA)23 & 24 March 2024 (Cambridge, UK)
Scholarships offeredEarly FebruaryLate March
Scholarships accepted48 hours after the offer48 hours after the offer

Note:
Candidates who are eligible to apply for around 1 or who applied for round two are not eligible to apply for round 2.

It is important to visit the official link of the scholarship for application and other information

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