New Gates scholars announced from 26 countries

This brings to over 270 the number of Gates scholars who will be in residence at the University of Cambridge from autumn 2010, when the prestigious scholarship programme celebrates its 10th anniversary. For the first time they include scholars from El Salvador and Norway and the second Gates scholar from Japan. Fifty-one students were selected after interviews at Wolfson College, Cambridge, at the end of last month. Twenty nine were selected after interviews in Annapolis, Maryland in February. Thirty seven of the new scholars are from the United States, the largest grouping by nationality, but they include eight students who were already studying at Cambridge, albeit not on a Gates scholarship. Four were selected from Canada and China and three from Germany and the Russian Federation. The scholarship programme, set up in 2000 and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, enables postgraduates with a strong interest in social leadership and responsibility to study at the University of Cambridge.