AUSTRALIA LAUNCHES NEW SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM FOR FUTURE LEADERS
(29 May 2006 – Makati City ) -- Future Filipino leaders will have an opportunity to enhance their skills through a new Australian Government scholarship program. Australian Ambassador Tony Hely will launch today the Australian Leadership Awards (ALA), a new scholarship program that will focus on current and future leaders in business, education and government. The launch will be held at the Australia Centre at the Australian Embassy in Makati City before representatives of business, academe, government and media.
The establishment of the ALA was earlier announced in Australia by Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer during the launch of the White Paper on Australia’s overseas aid program – Australian Aid: Promoting Growth and Stability.
Through the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), over 3000 ALA scholarship slots will be provided to countries in the Asia Pacific region, including the Philippines, in the next five years.
Ambassador Hely said Australia has long provided scholarships to promote development and foster relationships between Australia and the Philippines.
“Scholarships promote political and economic reform and good governance, while enabling regional leaders to develop enduring connections with Australia,” Ambassador Hely said.
The ALA complements the highly regarded Australian Development Scholarships program, which has sent over 800 Filipinos to Australia for graduate courses relevant to Philippine development priorities. It will provide an opportunity for current and future Filipino leaders to experience world-class education in Australia and establish links with their counterparts from the Asia-Pacific region.
“I believe that the Philippines would benefit highly from the Australian Leadership Awards in the same way that it was able to take advantage of the Australian Development Scholarships and other Australian-supported training programs. We envision this program to contribute to the further strengthening of people to people relations between our countries,” Ambassador Hely said.
“It is timely that we are launching the Australian Leadership Awards here in the Philippines in the same year that we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the formal relations between our two countries. I am hopeful that with initiatives such as the ALA, the relationship between Australia and the Philippines would even be more meaningful.”
The ALA will offer postgraduate study at Australian Universities at PhD and Masters Degree levels and for the development of leaders through a fellowships program. For the first batch, up to 60 doctoral and 230 masters degree scholarship slots for PhD and Masters Degree would be made available for countries where Australia has an existing aid program, including the Philippines. Half the scholarships will be for women and half for men, in line with AusAID’s policy on gender equity.
The fields of study will be in the areas of management, economics, business, political science, philosophy, history, law and public policy. In 2007, priority study programs will be in the areas of international trade, disease pandemics, security, and clean energy.
To be eligible for an ALA scholarship, an applicant must be a Filipino citizen; under 42 years of age in the year of application; have a conditional offer letter from an Australian university for entry into full time study for masters of doctoral studies in Australia; and meet English language requirements (IELTS or TOEFL). Applications will close on 31 July 2006.
Application forms may be downloaded from www.ausaid.gov.au/scholar. For inquiries, e-mail [email protected].