2012年的香港博士生奖学金计划（Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme）已经公布。总共165名申请者受到资助，申请人总数为4253名，资助率4%。受到资助的每月会收到2万港币的奖学金。这165名幸运儿中有92人来自中国大陆，向他们表示祝贺。

香港博士生奖学金计划旨在向最优秀的学生提供一流的生活和学习环境，帮助他们做出一流的科学研究。

The Research Grants Council (RGC) announced today (March 30) the results of the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme 2012/13.

One hundred and sixty-five elite candidates from 32 countries/regions have accepted offers in the third round of the scheme.

The RGC launched this fellowship scheme in September 2009 to attract the best and brightest students from around the world (including Hong Kong) to pursue their PhD studies and research in UGC-funded institutions in Hong Kong. A total of 4 253 applications from 117 countries/regions were received in this exercise.

The eight participating institutions, namely City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Lingnan University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and The University of Hong Kong, nominated 452 applicants to compete for the fellowships.

Two Selection Panels, one on Science, Medicine, Engineering and Technology and the other on Humanities, Social Sciences and Business Studies, comprising 27 overseas and 20 local academics with excellent experience in recruiting research postgraduate students for top-notch institutions, were set up to evaluate the nominated candidates.

The local academics conducted assessment of the applications by means of a blind review to avoid any conflict of interest. Furthermore, 26 overseas Panel Members came to Hong Kong for a meeting in late February to make further selections.

After a rigorous evaluation process, 200 candidates were offered a fellowship and 165 have accepted. Among these awardees, 57 (34.5%) candidates are from other countries/regions, including 25 (15.2%) from Europe, 21 (12.7%) from Asian countries/regions other than Mainland and Hong Kong, 5 (3%) from Americas, 4 (2.4%) from Africa, and 2 (1.2%) from Oceania. Besides, 92 (55.8%) awardees are from Mainland China and 16 (9.7%) are from Hong Kong. Most of the awardees will study in fields relating to Engineering (27.3%) and Sciences (26.7%), followed by Social Sciences (17%), Arts and Humanities (13.9%). A statistical summary on the awardees is set out at Annex. A list of awardees can be found in "Funding Results of Other Schemes" section of the RGC website.

Commenting on the results, the Chairman of the RGC, Professor Roland Chin, said, "The target of the scheme is to provide 135 places or more to the best students from around the world. I am glad to see that this year we made 200 offers and 165 students have accepted the fellowship, representing a 32% increase over the last round. The result is remarkable and shows that the cultural diversity and quality of awardees have improved much in the third round exercise. We look forward to welcoming the new batch of students to come to Hong Kong to pursue their PhD studies."

Ends/Friday, March 30, 2012

The Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme

The Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme, established by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) in 2009, aims at attracting the best and brightest students from all over the world to pursue their PhD studies in Hong Kong. The Fellowship provides a monthly stipend of HK$20,000 and a conference travel allowance of HK$10,000 per year for the awardees for a maximum period of three years. For awardees with a normative study period of 4 years, CUHK will offer the award at the same level for the fourth year. 135 PhD Fellowships will be awarded for the 2012/13 academic year.

CUHK welcomes applicants who are seeking admission to our full-time PhD programmes to apply through the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme. Those who are seeking admission as new full-time PhD students, irrespective of their country of origin and ethnic background, should be eligible to apply. Applicants should demonstrate outstanding qualities of academic performance, research ability / potential, communication and interpersonal skills, and leadership abilities.