Dominick Chilcott

A visit with this year's Marshall scholars

Seeing off this year's crop of Marshall scholars, as they left the United States to begin their university courses in Britain, was an uplifting experience.

This group of 37 bright, outgoing, accomplished, young people, from all parts of America - the Marshall scholars - are the beneficiaries of an Act of Parliament passed in July 1953, the month after the coronation of our present Queen, Elizabeth the Second. Britain's parliament wanted to offer the United States a living gift in the form of this scholarship programme in return for America's generous assistance to Britain to help rebuild the country after the Second World War, the famous Marshall Plan.

The early 1950s was the time when Britain began to believe that recovery after the war was firmly and assuredly on course. The Festival of Britain, designed to create a post-war feel good feeling, was held in 1951. In the same year as the coronation, 1953, sweet (or candy) rationing was ended, not a negligible event. And the mood of the country received a double fillip with the news of Hilary and Tenzing's conquest of Everest arriving on the eve of coronation day itself. There was a spirit of optimism in the country at the prospect of the dawn of new Elizabethan golden age. The Marshall scholarship programme emerged in those hopeful times.

The first Marshall scholars had plenty of hair-raising tales to tell of conditions in Britain then. Many of them centre on the shock of the cold weather in the days before student rooms had central heating and the really bad food. But almost all the Marshall alumni now look back on their British university experience with warmth and nostalgia and some call it the time of their lives.

The modern Britain that today's scholars will discover has, of course, completed its physical recovery from the Second World War. A few public health officials may lament the passing of sweet rationing, given the rise of obesity-related health problems in Britain, but most of us are delighted by the range of chocolates and confectionery into which we can sink our teeth.

Britons have also recovered their flair for entrepreneurship and innovation in business and the arts. Despite the turmoil in the financial markets, the Marshalls will find Britain a vibrant, confident country with plenty going on - the best football in the world, some of the best TV, beautiful countryside to explore and places of historical interest on every corner. Even British food is winning plaudits these days. And if you like your weather damp and your beer warm, there's nowhere better to be.

Oh and British universities are pretty good places to study at too. History and a first rate research output have built up a strong international reputation for them. In the THES - QS World University Rankings, a widely acknowledged international ranking of universities, four of the UK's universities in 2006 came in the world top ten, these being Oxford (2nd behind Havard), Cambridge(3rd), Imperial College London (5th) and University College London (9th).

This year's scholars are an impressive and inspiring group, studying a fascinating and diverse range of subjects from trumpet performance to philosophy, from criminology to French painting. They are also going to many different parts of the United Kingdom. One is studying terrorism, violence and security in Belfast. Another will read theological ethics at Edinburgh. There's a systems engineer heading for Sheffield, an economist going to Brighton and a naval officer from Annapolis with a place at Exeter, close to where Britain's Royal Navy has such strong roots. And there are plenty of scholars with places at Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College, UCL and other learned institutions in London.

Wherever they are going and whatever they are reading, all of us at the Embassy and the British Council wish them God speed and the very best of luck. We hope they have a wonderful and enlightening time and that, despite (or maybe because of) the warm beer and the weather, they will come to consider the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to be their 'home from home.'

Posted at 09:43 19 September 2008 by Dominick Chilcott  |  Comments[0]