COMMONWEALTH SCHOLARSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP PLAN

That this House congratulates the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan on its 50th anniversary this year; notes the major impact of the plan in producing leaders and highly-skilled professionals throughout the Commonwealth; welcomes the planned launch by the Commonwealth Education Ministers, at their 2009 conference in Malaysia, of new initiatives to make Commonwealth scholarships more widely available than ever before; recognises the prominent role played by successive United Kingdom governments, through the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, throughout the history of the plan; and calls on the Government to continue this commitment in future, by ensuring that Commonwealth scholarships in the United Kingdom remain available to citizens of all Commonwealth countries, and that those scholarships in developing countries remain integral to the United Kingdom's international development contribution.