Development, Policy and Practice have successfully secured an award of 9 Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarships, worth a total of £162,000, funded by the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office through the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, to fund Ugandan development practitioners to study for the MSc in Global Development. This follows a successful award bid in 2022.

The award continues the tradition of welcoming Commonwealth Scholars which has enabled over 100 students in East Africa to study for a postgraduate Development Masters with The OU since 2006. The Scholarships enable talented students to access training not otherwise available in their home country, via distance learning.

The Scholarships are eligible for those Ugandan nationals employed by a development agency with a minimum of two years experience working in Uganda on development issues, and the successful applicants will begin their three years of study in October 2023. The qualification is taught by The Open University and managed locally by Kulika Uganda, a registered not-for-profit organisation with over thirty years’ experience in managing scholarships.

Dr Frangton Chiyemura, Lecturer in International Development Education, who led the Scholarship bid, welcomed the award, saying “these scholarships will ensure that we continue to support development policy and practice in the region through our teaching.”

Launched in 2021, the MSc in Global Development is an innovative, interdisciplinary and flexible qualification that equips students to investigate, understand, and respond to Development challenges in the real world. “Whilst the course builds up skills for managing Development generally, the focus will be on strengthening peace, security and governance. In Uganda, one potentially important application of this will be developing the capacity of development practitioners in promoting sustainable development."

Find out more

About the Scholarship and how to apply