Five University of Melbourne students are among 125 students from around Australia to receive a 2020 New Colombo Plan (NCP) Scholarship.
The scholarships were announced by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Marise Payne, and Minister for Education, the Hon Dan Tehan MP at an event in Canberra on Monday.
The NCP is an initiative of the Australian Government that was launched in 2014. It aims to lift knowledge of the Indo-Pacific by supporting Australian undergraduates to study and undertake internships in the region.
The NCP scholarships fund students for up to 19 months, enabling them to undertake international study which may include language tuition, an internship and/or mentorship in the Indo-Pacific region.
Three students from the University of Melbourne have also been acknowledged as an NCP Fellow - the top-ranked candidate for each host location. NCP Fellows receive an additional grant of $1000 for study materials and are expected to take on additional promotional and leadership activities in their geographic location.
University of Melbourne Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) Adrian Little congratulated each scholarship recipient.
"This is an exceptional outcome for the University, demonstrating the high quality of candidates and the work undertaken by the Global Learning team to select and prepare the students," said Professor Little.
The list of 2020 NCP Scholars from the University of Melbourne is:
*Charis Yang: Bachelor of Arts (Economics), Diploma in Languages (Chinese)
Destination: National Taiwan University
*Kit Muirhead: Bachelor of Arts (Politics & International Studies and Sociology)
Destination: University of the South Pacific, Fiji
*Shannon Nuala Schultz: Bachelor of Science (Environmental Science)
Destination: University of the South Pacific, Cook Islands Campus
Ruby Adams: Bachelor of Science (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)
Destination: University of Malaya
Max Collett: Bachelor of Science (Environmental Science), Chancellor's Scholar's Program, Diploma in Languages (Chinese).
Destination: National Taiwan University.
*Also, an NCP Fellow. For more information about the New Colombo Plan click here.
