In a first, 3 Karnataka women awarded Chevening scholarships

For the first time, all state awardees of the United Kingdom’s Chevening Scholarship this year are women. The women are due to start a master’s programme at some of the UK’s top universities next month.

The Chevening Scholarships offer full financial support for one year to candidates applying for a master’s degree at any UK university, covering nearly 12,000 courses from more than 150 universities. Across India, 39 candidates have been chosen for the programme for the current year.

Jeremy Pilmore-Bedford, British Deputy High Commissioner to Karnataka and Kerala, described the three scholars going from Bengaluru as “exceptional.”

“They will study diverse subjects, such as law, health and tropical medicine and social innovation and entrepreneurship,” the Deputy High Commissioner said.

Among the awardees is Sushma Mahabala, a Bengalurean who led safety and sustainability initiatives at B PAC, focusing on women development. She will be studying Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Another is Rutuja Chhajed, a Biomedical engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) who is pursuing an MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford. For the last three years, she has been working as a research analyst at St John’s Research Institute Bangalore.

The final awardee is Roshni Menon, a law graduate from Christ University, who will be studying for an LLM in International Financial Laws at King’s College London. She said that she hopes to use her education to help her understand how to improve commercial law policy in India.

Aspiring scholars can apply for a one-year master’s under the Scholarship programme by 3 November 2020 or for the short-term thematic Fellowship programmes by 19 October 2020.