JEDDAH: The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) recently signed an agreement with the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust and Cambridge Overseas Trust to launch a scholarship program to help talented students in IDB member countries pursue higher studies at Cambridge University.
The IDB-Cambridge Inter-national Scholarship Program is launched within the scope of the IDB Merit Scholarship Program for Science and Technology to place meritorious students from IDB member countries and Muslim communities in nonmember countries to do a three-year doctoral study at the university.
“This partnership with an outstanding institution of knowledge would help build future leaders in developing countries,” IDB President Ahmed Mohamed Ali said after signing the agreement at Trinity College in the presence of professor Alison Richard, vice chancellor of Cambridge, the world’s second most famous university.
Ali expressed hope that the partnership would expand to other areas of education and human development. “We can work together to create a prosperous global village,” he told the gathering, which included senior university officials as well as IDB scholars studying across Europe.
The memorandum of understanding was countersigned by Lord Lewis, executive chairman of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust/Cambridge Overseas Trust.
The IDB has been providing scholarships for over 15 years with the objective of developing human resources in science and technology, which are crucial for sustainable development. Ali congratulated the university’s authorities on celebrations marking the university’s 800 years.
Richard described the joint scholarship program as a new dimension of the university’s activities to reach out to emerging and developing countries.
“Our university has a moral role to play to harmonize relationship between developed and developing nations in order to strengthen world peace and stability,” he said.
Malek Shah bin Mohammed Yusoff, head of the IDB Scholarship Program Office, said the joint program is a huge step forward for the IDB in its drive to further internationalize its scholarship program. “Similar programs with other top universities in Europe, the US and Australia are in the pipeline,” he said.
Under the agreement, IDB scholars will also get a 50 percent tuition fee concession.
IDB’s undergraduate scholarship program covers about 9,800 medical and engineering students in 48 nonmember countries every year.
“Since its inception in 1983, more than 5,700 students have benefited from the program,” Saeed-uz-Zafar, program officer, told Arab News.
