The Scholarships for Excellence (SfE) welcome reception was held on Friday 27 September 2013. The British Council in Hong Kong has administered the scholarships since 2006, and it is an honour for us to continue our involvement this year.
We were delighted to have Wallace Lau, Acting Deputy Secretary for Education, Education Bureau, HKSAR government, as our guest speaker for the welcome reception. Robert Ness, Director of the British Council in Hong Kong, who also gave a speech, commented that the Scholarships for Excellence scheme ‘is, in some ways, the most important programme that we are associated with’, as it encourages and supports students to study in Hong Kong and enrich their university experience.
We have 15 scholars this year from ten UK institutions (Imperial College London; Lancaster University; Manchester Metropolitan University; The University of Nottingham; The University of Sheffield; The University of Warwick; the University of Bristol; the University of Leeds; Royal Holloway, University of London; and the University of Southampton). The scholars are studying different subject areas, such as Fine Art, Engineering, International Relations and Global Issues, History, Economics, Asia-Pacific Studies, and Law.
Before the welcome reception, a short briefing was held for the scholars to introduce the work of the British Council and encourage them to make the most of their time here in Hong Kong.
The scholarships are funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BSI) in the UK and Paul Kan from A Better Tomorrow, Hong Kong.
Our 15 scholars are:
Fauzia Amao, Samuel Ashcroft, Thomas Burke, Alexander Coles, Luke Douglas, Rebecca Ewing, Howard Fawcett, Katharine Horgan, Marianne Hughes, Andrew James, Piers Lakin, Leon Man, Arvind Norris, Julien Passinke and Thais Santos-Paulo.