Corporate report

Commonwealth Scholarship Commission business plan 2024 to 2025

Published 14 February 2024

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

1. Strategic context

One of the Commonwealth’s finest innovations and UK’s best soft power icons, the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission stands out from HM Government’s other scholarship platforms through its robust support for the UN Sustainable Development Goals - which align well with the FCDO’s international development priorities. Over its 65-year history, this prestigious and much-respected global brand has supported over 31,000 individuals, of the 36,000 funded under the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan. By empowering talented individuals across the modern Commonwealth to learn, innovate and co-create knowledge and solutions for tackling global development challenges, the CSC helps to transform societies and build a safer, healthier, more prosperous world for all.

Supporting talented individuals to catalyse sustainable development across the modern Commonwealth will remain a critical focus for this plan period.

The CSC will continue to be highly collaborative. Our commitment to partnering with governments, universities and organisations with shared interests across the modern Commonwealth will be sustained and enhanced, with a view to extending life-transforming opportunities to talented individuals and enabling them to pursue sustainable development priorities pertinent to their respective countries.

Working together with governments, universities and other organisations to transform talent and societies will remain a key priority for the CSC during this plan period.

The CSC also actively supports candidates of outstanding academic ability from disadvantaged backgrounds with scholarships and fellowships to gain the skills and knowledge required to innovate for and lead sustainable development. This priority supports key aspects of HM Government’s strategy for international development, its Integrated Review Refresh 2023: Responding to a more contested and volatile world and its International women and girls strategy 2023 to 2030.

Supporting candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds will continue to be a distinctive feature of CSC scholarships and fellowships during this plan period.

In addition to the CSC’s distinctive contributions to the UK’s international development priorities, it plays an important role in attracting the best and brightest talent to UK universities in support of the UK’s International Education Strategy. The CSC promotes research excellence and innovation through international collaboration, enabling individuals and institutions across the Commonwealth to build sustainable partnerships. The CSC’s programmes are a unique and innovative contribution to the ambitions of UK’s Research and Development Roadmap.

Attracting outstanding Commonwealth talent to contribute to the UK’s research and innovation base and international networks will continue to be a key priority.

As demonstrated by our cutting-edge evaluation programme, the CSC delivers impact as well as value for money for the UK taxpayer – attracting over £5 million in partnership funding annually. Innovations such as Shared Scholarships (jointly funded by UK universities), Distance Learning Scholarships, and Split-site Scholarships have facilitated this cost effectiveness. The latter 2 pathways entail scholars studying for Master’s and PhDs from their home country on distance learning or split-site basis respectively.

Value-enhancing innovations, including scholarship schemes enabling awardees to study from their home country, will continue to be prioritised during the plan period.

The CSC is proud to reaffirm its commitment to development, equity, access, and relevance. This plan sets out priorities and pathways to the CSC’s continuing delivery of impact and enhanced value to the UK taxpayer, the UK government, and the modern Commonwealth.

2. Objectives and priorities for 2024 to 2025

Between 2022 to 2023 and 2024 to 2025, the CSC’s objectives are:

  1. To provide a world-class scholarship scheme that contributes to sustainable development across the Commonwealth

  2. To ensure that our programmes promote equity and inclusion, reward merit, and deliver widespread access, especially to those from disadvantaged backgrounds

  3. To support and encourage cutting-edge research, innovation, and knowledge exchange across the Commonwealth

The CSC’s priorities during 2024 to 2025 will be:

Strategic priorities

  1. To celebrate the global impact of Commonwealth Scholarships in the UK in the CSC’s 65th Anniversary Year.

  2. To ensure that all scholarships and fellowships are focused on 6 development- related themes and to integrate further the themes into CSC programming and impact reporting

  3. To agree the balance of awards across programmes and countries based on the strategic priorities of the CSC and the UK government

  4. To embed the cross-cutting priority issues of climate change and global health across the CSC’s communications, engagement, alumni, and evaluation programming

  5. To finalise the mechanism for reviewing the scholarship and fellowship programmes based on evidence of impact, to include an analysis of overhead costs

  6. To deliver the CSC’s Time Limited Programme focussed on a specific theme which responds to current political or environmental challenges facing the Commonwealth. The theme in the current financial year is ‘Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Job Creation’.

  7. To embed and promote the unique nature of the CSC offer – namely its focus in all its programming on Commonwealth needs in relation to research and development

  8. To sustain high level doctoral research opportunities and to scale up the number of Split-site Scholarships, recognising the unique opportunities this Programme provides in building collaboration and partnerships

  9. To increase the number of Distance Learning Scholarships which provide vital opportunities for online study to Scholars otherwise unable to benefit from a mobility Scholarship.

Organisational priorities

  1. To review operational efficiency across the Commission and the Secretariat

  2. To grow and diversify income in order to support the demand for high-calibre applicants across programmes and to seek to maximise opportunities for candidates across the Commonwealth

3. Key performance indicators 2024 to 2025

The CSC has agreed 5 key performance indicators in 2024 to 2025 which will be used to measure success against our objectives and priorities:

  1. The gender of candidates selected for each CSC programme will be at least 45% female and 45% male
  2. Partnerships with UK universities will generate at least £4.5 million in matching contributions
  3. Thirty 5 alumni profiles of CSC Women Leading Change and alumni impacting climate change will be published demonstrating the CSC’s support of cutting-edge research, innovation, and knowledge exchange throughout the Commonwealth
  4. Ten alumni profiles will be published demonstrating research which promotes equity and inclusion and supports those who have been left behind
  5. Ten in-depth Evaluation Case Studies will be produced to demonstrate the CSC as an innovative world-class scholarship and fellowship scheme that delivers impact on sustainable development across the Commonwealth

4. Budget and award allocation 2024 to 2025

Table 1 below shows the full budget illustrated for 2024 to 2025 presented to the CSC Finance Committee in November 2023 based upon an indicative budget of £28.224 million from FCDO and £452,000 from DfE. The direct award costs in Table 1 are based on the award numbers in Table 2.

Table 1

CSC illustrated budget 2024 to 2025 2024 to 2025 budget (£000)
FCDO grant-in-aid programme 27,800
FCDO grant-in-aid admin 424
DFE grant-in-aid programme 452
Total grant-in-aid to CSC 28,676
ODA PhD 7,651
Agency master’s 3,493
Split-site PhD 2,919
Shared scholarships 3,935
Distance learning 3,135
Professional 412
Non-ODA PhD 395
Direct award costs 21,941
Visas / health surcharges 789
Award extensions 208
Award hardship 52
Disability mainstreaming 52
Scholar support 652
Cash card fees 12
Other scholarship costs 1,765
Total scholarships 23,681
Evaluation 325
Communications 613
Alumni: ACU 276
Alumni: British Council 374
Recruitment and outreach 303
Time limited programme 414
IT development 340
VAT 372
Total other programme expenditure 3,017
Programme expenditure 26,723
Commission costs via ACU 88
ACU management fees 285
VAT 57
CSC administrative expenditure 430
Programme management costs FCDO 1,227
DFE programme management costs 48
VAT 255
FCDO programme management costs 1,530
Total CSC expenditure 28,683
Surplus/(Deficit) (7)

Table 2: Award allocation 2024 to 2025, at November 2023

Scholarship Continuing scholars Target new awards in 2023 to 2024 Target new awards 2024 to 2025 Awards budget allocated £,000 % of ODA awards budget
ODA PhD scholarships 218 50 56 7,651 35.74%**
Non-ODA PhD scholarships 4 4 4 395 Non-ODA**
Split-site PhD scholarships 50 50 89 2,919 12.56%**
Agency-nominated master’s scholarships 97 97 90 3,493 16.32%
Shared master’s scholarships 201 201 163 3,935 18.81%
Distance learning master’s scholarships 625 205 220 3,135 14.65%
Professional fellowships - 25 35 412 1.92%
Time limited programme awards - 25 15* From TLP budget From TLP budget
Total 1,195 657 672 21,941  

*This number is to be confirmed as the programme design for the Entrepreneurship TLP develops

**The total allocation of awards budget on doctoral research (ODA and non-ODA) is 50%

5. Membership

Under the terms of the Act, the CSC comprises up to 14 members, in addition to the Chair.

Membership of the CSC during 2024 to 2025 is:

Name Appointed Appointed to Comments
Professor Robin Mason (Chair) 1 January 2022 31 December 2024 Chair: 1st term
Professor Morag McDonald (Deputy Chair) 11 May 2020 10 May 2026 2nd term
Professor Allan Hill 1 September 2023 31 August 2026 1st term
Ms Aisling Conboy 1 September 2023 31 August 2026 1st term
Dr Catherine MacKenzie 11 May 2020 10 May 2026 2nd term
Dr Christine Thuranira-McKeever 11 May 2020 10 May 2026 2nd term
Ms Elizabeth Tanya Masiyiwa 1 September 2023 31 August 2026 1st term
Ms Emma Judge 1 October 2018 30 September 2024 2nd term
Professor James Smith 1 March 2021 29 February 2024 2nd term
Professor Kevin Ibeh 1 March 2021 29 February 2024 2nd term
Professor Liz Baggs 1 September 2023 31 August 2026 1st term
Professor Parmjit Jat 1 March 2021 29 February 2024 2nd term
Professor Paul Jackson 1 October 2018 30 September 2024 2nd term
Mr Ryan Shorthouse 1 October 2023 30 September 2026 1st term
Professor Sarah Hawkes 11 May 2020 10 May 2026 2nd term

Members and the Chair are normally permitted to serve up to 2 three-year terms, depending on re-appointment by the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs. All appointments to the CSC are publicly advertised, in accordance with the regulations of OCPA.

6. Published information

As laid out in its publication scheme,[footnote 1] the CSC publishes the following information:

Class of information Location
Who we are and what we do  
List of all Commission members www.gov.uk/cscuk
Location and contact details www.gov.uk/cscuk
Annual report: governance statement www.gov.uk/cscuk
What we spend and how we spend it  
Financial memorandum www.gov.uk/cscuk
Annual report: statement of income and expenditure www.gov.uk/cscuk
How we make decisions  
Award eligibility and selection criteria https://cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk/
Minutes of Commission meetings Available for inspection on request
What our priorities are and how we are doing  
Business plan www.gov.uk/cscuk
Corporate plan www.gov.uk/cscuk
Annual Report: Statement of income and expenditure www.gov.uk/cscuk
Evaluation and monitoring programme results https://cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk/
Our policies and procedures  
Award terms and conditions https://cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk/
Handbook for Commonwealth scholars and fellows https://cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to apply https://cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk/
Information to be published  
Commission code of conduct www.gov.uk/cscuk
Rules on conflicts of interest www.gov.uk/cscuk
Complaints procedure www.gov.uk/cscuk
Anti-fraud policy and procedure www.gov.uk/cscuk
Travel policy www.gov.uk/cscuk
Safeguarding policy www.gov.uk/cscuk
Lists and registers  
Register of interests Available for inspection on request
Risk register Available for inspection on request
The services we offer  
The awards we offer and how to apply https://cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk/
Information for current award holders https://cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk/
Information for alumni https://cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk/
Organisations that we work in partnership with  
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office www.gov.uk/fcdo
National nominating agencies https://cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk/
UK universities https://cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk/
  1. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/commonwealth-scholarship-commission-in-the-uk/about/publication-scheme