TheCable

African students have an opportunity to study at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London on scholarship.

Funded by notable organisations including the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the programme specialises in the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, law, economics, finance and management, politics and development as well as languages and arts in Africa.

Liberian Robtel Neajai Pailey, a beneficiary of the programme, commended the sponsors, expressing appreciation for the opportunity.

“I chose SOAS because of its alternative approaches to teaching and its focus on perspectives from the global south,” he said.

“I’ve been on academic scholarships since I was a 15-year-old high school student, and would not have been able to pursue my dream of obtaining a Ph.D. at SOAS without the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Scholarship.

“Without a doubt, scholarships enhance the diversity and intellectual dynamism of SOAS.”

In 2013, Pailey was recognised by “99 Under 33” – an international list of the most influential foreign policy leaders under the age of 33 by US global affairs magazine Diplomatic Courier and Young Professionals in Foreign Policy.

She is the author of Gbagba, an anti-corruption primer for children, which she hopes to introduce into the school curriculum in Liberia.

Other organisations sponsoring the programme are the Allan and Nesta Ferguson Trust, a grant-awarding charity; Canon Collins Educational and Legal Assistance Trust, an organisation founded to enable all people in South Africa to realise their potential; and the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission with funding from UK Department of International Development provide the Commonwealth Shared Scholarships.

Ranked as sixth in the UK and 26th in the world, SOAS, University of London, is among the world’s elite university institutions. The scholarship empowers people for a global economy and a multicultural world.