Closing Date: 01/08/2013
The Woolf Fisher Scholarships were established in 2003 by the Trustees of the Woolf Fisher Trust to honour Woolf Fisher as co-founder, with Maurice Paykel, of the company Fisher & Paykel Limited (1934) and foundation chairman of New Zealand Steel Limited (1965). In 1960 he established the Woolf Fisher Trust for the advancement of scientific and general education. Its prestigious Fellowship programme has provided extensive study travel overseas for nearly 1000 secondary teachers. Woolf Fisher’s outstanding contributions to industry and education in New Zealand were recognised with a knighthood in 1964 and will be perpetuated by these Scholarships.
Purpose: The Woolf Fisher Trust offers up to three Scholarships each year tenable at the University of Cambridge for three or four years of postgraduate research leading to a doctoral degree or equivalent. Woolf Fisher Scholars will have shown outstanding academic ability and will possess many of the qualities admired by Woolf Fisher: integrity, leadership, boldness of vision and exceptional zeal, keenness and capacity for work.
The main objective of the Trustees is that Woolf Fisher Scholars will make a significant commitment to New Zealand and become leaders in their fields.
Eligibility: The Scholarships are open to New Zealand citizens who:
(a) are under the age of thirty in the year of application (i.e. will not have reached their thirtieth birthday by 31 December in the year the application is submitted)
(b) attended a secondary school in New Zealand for at least two years, and
(c) have graduated or are expected to graduate with a first-class honours degree from a university in New Zealand.
No application will be considered from a student already living outside of New Zealand and no award will be made for post-doctoral study.
Value and Tenure: A Woolf Fisher Scholar receives a maintenance allowance of £13,000 sterling per year for each year of full-time study towards the degree approved at the time of the award.
In addition the Trustees pay directly and on behalf of the Scholar the approved College Fee and University Composition Fee. An economy airfare to and from London is also provided annually for the personal use of the Scholar and is not transferable. It is estimated that each Scholarship will have a value of approximately $100,000 per year.
The first half-yearly instalment of the Scholarship will be paid in mid September of the year in which study commences and the second in mid March. Further emoluments will be paid on each of the next anniversaries for the agreed tenure of the Scholarship, subject to the Trustees receiving reports from the supervisor and the scholar of satisfactory academic progress in the past year.
The tenure of the Scholarship will normally be for three years of full time study. For study in a Faculty requiring a four year doctoral programme, the Scholarship will be extended by one year to a total of four years. The Scholarship will not be extended beyond four years.
Other awards may not be held concurrently with the Scholarship without prior consultation with the Secretary of the Woolf Fisher Trust.
Woolf Fisher Scholars may be eligible for a Woolf Fisher Postdoctoral Research Scholarship if they return to New Zealand within five years of commencing study at Cambridge University. Application must be made to the Secretary of the Trust.
Application Procedure: All candidates must apply on the prescribed form. Candidates must submit their applications to the Scholarships Office of the university from which they graduated or at which they are currently enrolled. Candidates who graduated from university more than five years ago must submit their applications to the Scholarships Manager of Universities New Zealand.
Applications must be submitted by 1 August in the year prior to that in which the scholarship will be taken up.
Each application must be accompanied by:
(a) a certified copy of a birth certificate or other proof of New Zealand citizenship;
(b) a certified copy of the candidate’s academic record;
(c) a signed statement outlining the proposed area of research, a preferred Faculty, a list of potential supervisors of the research and how the candidate’s future career will benefit New Zealand;
(d) a signed statement of the candidate’s general interests and activities;
(e) the names and contact details of three confidential referees who have been asked to report directly to the university Scholarships Office or to Universities New Zealand by 1 August;
(f) two unmounted photographs;
(g) such other information as seems pertinent to the application or which may from time to time be required by the Selection Committee.
Two of the referees will be university academic referees; they should be advised that their references may be used to seek admission to a university Faculty and a College at Cambridge University for the proposed research.
Selection Procedure: Candidates will be short-listed by a sub-committee of the Woolf Fisher Scholarship Selection Committee and invited to Auckland to a personal interview by the Selection Committee.
The decisions of the Selection Committee will be final. Successful candidates will be notified at the completion of the interviews. They will have their Scholarships confirmed by the Secretary of the Woolf Fisher Trust following their acceptance for admission by a Faculty and a College at Cambridge University. Guidance on the admission application procedure will be provided by the Secretary of the Trust.
The Scholar will come into residence at Cambridge in October in the year following selection. No deferment of a Scholarship to a later academic year will be permitted.
Power to Vary Rules and Regulations: It shall be lawful for Universities New Zealand on the recommendation of the Woolf Fisher Selection Committee at any time and from time to time to amplify, vary or rescind all or any of the regulations relating to the said scholarships and the award and tenure thereof specified in the preceding clauses and to add any further or substitute other conditions, provided that no such conditions shall be inconsistent with the general purpose of the said scholarships.
Related links
- For further information visit www.woolffishertrust.co.nz
- For information on Cambridge University: http://www.cam.ac.uk/
- For information on Cambridge University Board of Graduate Studies: http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/gradstud/
Application close with the Scholarships Office, Graduate Research School on 1 August each year.
Woolf Fisher Guidelines and Woolf Fisher Application Form are available from the NZVCC website:
http://www.universitiesnz.ac.nz/scholarships/woolffisher
For further scholarship information, please contact:
Jon Winnall, Scholarships Manager
jon.winnall@universitiesnz.ac.nz
All applications are acknowledged by email.
Application cannot be accepted before 01/05/2013.