Friday 13 June 2008

Bhutan : RCSC and QUT to give 20-30 Doctoral scholarship


June 12: The Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia will jointly give 20-30 scholarships for Bhutanese to pursue Ph.D in Australia. A memorandum of understanding to this effect was signed yesterday at the RCSC office in Thimphu.

The agreement was signed by the RCSC Secretary Dasho Bap Kesang and the Director of South Asia of the Queensland University of Technology Dr. Sheel Nuna.

Under the scholarship 20 to 30 Bhutanese can pursue Ph.D at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia from 2008 to 2010. The university will waive off the tuition fees while the RCSC will bear the living allowance, return airfare and visa application fees.

Those selected for the scholarship can pursue Ph. D in Education, Applied Social Sciences, Law, Information Technology, Architecture and Engineering, Media and Television, Health Sciences and Business Management.

The Chief Human Resources officer Ugyen Tshewang said those selected for the scholarship will undertake study in external mode. This means candidates shall visit the university for a period of four to six weeks in a year to do research, review and submit their thesis. He said if the tuition fees were to be borne by the candidate, the candidate will have to pay around 20,000 to 25, 000 Australian dollars in a year. He said this is the first time that so many doctoral degree tuition wavers have been given by one university.

Dr. Sheel Nuna, said this is a win win situation for both RCSC and the university.

Apart from that, the university will also offer undergraduate and postgraduate programme. The university will waive off the tuition fee for one student for every six tuition paying students. The remaining expenses will be borne by RCSC. The programme is from 2008 – 2010.

The agreement also covers a range of training programmes including short term courses and institutions linkage programmes.

So far, 982 Bhutanese candidates have completed their studies from Australia and currently there are 112 undergoing their studies.

www.bbs.com.bt

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