The Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust
The Trust and its contact details
The Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust (CWPT), established in 1981, is a
registered United Kingdom Charity (No. 283337). The Trust was
originally administered by the British Council, and is now run
independently, though the British Council provides support of various
kinds in the United Kingdom and in Pakistan. The Trust is managed
day-to-day by a Secretary who reports to a Board of Trustees:
Mr Peter Elborn OBE (Chair)
Professor Sarah Ansari
Ms Nada Raza
Dr Shehla Zaidi
Professor Adnan Khan
Ms Rosemary Arnott OBE
Professor Faisal Devji
Mr Tim Butchard
Ms Rebecca Walton CMG (Secretary)
Contact details:
Rebecca Walton
The Old Manor House
Cholesbury
Tring
Herts
HP23 6ND
rebeccawalton@wallace-trusts.org.uk
Activities of the Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust
CWPT’s trustees have the authority to use the income from the Trust’s funds to benefit Pakistanis who are normally resident in Pakistan by enabling them to advance their professional development or doctoral studies in the United Kingdom in ways specified below. Administrative costs are kept to a minimum, and almost 90% of CWPT’s investment income is spent on the Trust’s educational work. This consists of four separate programmes:
- Doctoral Bursaries
- Reserved Visiting Fellowships
- Open Visiting Fellowships
- Visiting Artists
Please note that there is no provision for Bachelors or Masters degree students.
The Trust is firmly committed to equal opportunities in all its
activities.
Doctoral Bursaries
Twice a year, in late May and early December, awards are granted to doctoral students in certain disciplines from Pakistan who are already in the UK and who are normally in their final year, or anticipating the final year, of their PhDs, and who need additional funding to help them complete their studies. The Trust is not primarily a hardship fund and all applicants are required to demonstrate academic excellence as well as financial need. Our maximum grant is normally £1,000 , so applicants must have funds from other sources to cater for most of their needs. The disciplines eligible for support are restricted to the following:
- The humanities, arts, and creative industries
- The social sciences and social development
- Life sciences including medicine.
How and when to apply
Applicants must complete CWPT’s Application
Form and submit it as an e-mail attachment to the
Secretary of the Trust (see above for contact details). The
application should be accompanied, also in the form of an on-line
attachment, by a supporting letter on headed paper from the
applicant’s supervisor. Other documents testifying to the
applicant’s background and achievements to date should be kept to a
minimum but a short CV of not more than two pages is welcome.
Applicants should not normally apply more than 15 months ahead of
their expected completion date. The two annual deadlines are the
last day of April and the last day of October. Applicants will be
informed of their success or otherwise soon after the Trustees’
meetings in late May and early December. Please note that
successful applicants for these grants cannot re-apply.
Reserved Fellowships
What are they?
Charles Wallace Reserved Visiting Fellowships are funded by the Trust but offered by the CWPT’s UK partners, such as SOAS and Nottingham University (see below). The fellowships enable Pakistani academics and professionals to undertake short working visits to these institutions with the aim of broadening their professional knowledge, skills and contacts. The content of a fellowship normally takes the form of professional interaction, study and research. The duration of a fellowship varies from three weeks to a maximum of three months. An all-inclusive monthly stipend of £1,450 is offered by the Trust, together with a contribution towards a return economy air fares and UK visa costs, but there is no provision for course or bench fees.
Partner Institutions in the UK
The provision of Reserved Fellowships varies from year to year as new relationships come on-stream. Not all of them are offered annually; some are offered every two years. The Trust currently has partnerships with the institutions listed below which from time to time recruit Visiting Fellows from Pakistan on research attachments lasting up to three months. As stated above, these awards are not reserved exclusively for academics but are also open to professionals from other fields such as journalism, public service, and the business sector.
Current partner institutions include:
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South Asia Institute, SOAS University of London (www.soas.ac.uk/study/student-life/finance/scholarships/soas-charles-wallace-pakistan-fellowship)
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Asia Research Institute, University of Nottingham (www.nottingham.ac.uk/asiaresearch)
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South Asia Centre, London School of Economics (www.lse.ac.uk/south-asia-centre)
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Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, in association with the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for South Asian Studies(www.iash.ed.ac.uk)
For further information, visit their website or the website of the British Council in Pakistan (www.britishcouncil.pk/programmes/education/scholarships) , or contact the Secretary of the Trust (timbutchard@wallace-trusts.org.uk).
Candidate specifications and how to apply
The selection criteria adopted by each partner institution varies and each has its own application requirements. Common to all is the need for a full curriculum vitae, and a clear statement of what the applicant proposes to achieve during the fellowship period. In some cases the focus is on offering research facilities to early or mid-career scholars who may have had little or no prior academic experience outside Pakistan. In others, the Visiting Fellow might be a more senior academic or professional practitioner who will be expected to participate in high-level interactions with her or his peer group. In every case, the selection is made by the host institution and is endorsed by the British Council in Pakistan and by the Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust in the UK.
Open Fellowships
What are they, and who can qualify?
Charles Wallace Open Visiting Fellowships, offered under a partnership between the British Council in Pakistan and the Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust in the United Kingdom, enable Pakistani men and women to undertake short visits to the UK in order to broaden their professional knowledge, skills, and contacts. Eligible candidates are Pakistani nationals, residing in Pakistan. They are normally junior or mid-career professionals or academics aged between 30 and 50, working in the following disciplines:
- The humanities, arts, and creative industries
- The social sciences, and social development
- Life Sciences and Medicine
Up to 12 fellowships are awarded annually. Candidates who have never travelled abroad for study or professional purposes will have a modest advantage in the selection process.
Content, duration, finance and administration
Visiting fellowships normally take the form of two principal activities: professional familiarization and interaction; and study and research. The duration of a fellowship varies from three weeks to a maximum of three months. An all-inclusive monthly stipend of £1,450 is offered by the Trust, also a contribution towards a return economy air fare and the costs of a UK visa, but there is no provision for course or bench fees. Please note that successful candidates must make all their own arrangements in the UK. The Charles Wallace Trust in London and the British Council in Pakistan are only able to offer very limited administrative and pastoral support. However, the British Council will advise on visa applications, pay stipends in advance, and offer some pre-departure briefing.
How to apply
Open Fellowships are offered once a year only and are advertised on the website of the British Council in British Council in Pakistan in December/January. The key preliminary step is that candidates must identify and make contact with a UK-based partner or host institution, and obtain an invitation letter from them. Secondly, an application form, downloaded from the website of the British Council in Pakistan (www.britishcouncil.pk/programmes/education/scholarships), must be completed and submitted as instructed in advance of the British Council’s annual deadline in March. Interviews of short-listed candidates will take place in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi in May of each year’. Successful candidates must take up their fellowships within 15 months of being selected, that is to say before the end of August of the following year. For further information please contact the British Council’s information desk in Pakistan (info@britishcouncil.org.pk) or e-mail the Secretary of the Trust in London (timbutchard@wallace-trusts.org.uk).
Visiting Artists
Who are they and how do they qualify?
The Charles Wallace Visiting Artists Programme enables arts practitioners from Pakistan to spend time in the UK on arts residencies or for training and familiarization purposes. Currently, these are mainly drawn from the visual arts, but other art forms, including the creative industries, can also qualify for support’. The duration of stay in the UK can vary from 3 weeks to 3 months, and an all-inclusive monthly stipend of £1,450 will be paid by the Trust, also a contribution towards a return economy air fare and UK visa costs. There is no provision for course or bench fees. Most UK arts institutions find it difficult to provide facilities for Visiting Artists so this is inevitably a small programme.
Current UK institutions offering facilities to CWPT
The Trust has an ongoing relationship with two UK institutions which are willing to receive Visiting Artists from Pakistan:
- The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, affiliated to the University of Wales (http://www.psta.org.uk/). Under a partnership between the Prince’s School in London and the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, a Pakistani artist or craftsperson is invited to spend a term working at the School in London each year. Fees are waived by the School and living expenses are met by CWPT. Candidates are selected from recent graduates of NCA’s Masters in Fine Arts.
- Gasworks (www.gasworks.org.uk), the London arts centre, offers an arts residency to a Pakistani contemporary artist each year. Gasworks is affiliated to the Triangle Arts Trust (www.trianglearts.org), an international network of artists and arts organizations, of which VASL (www.vaslart.org) in Pakistan is an active member. The annual Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust and Rangoonwala Foundation Residency at Gasworks is described on these sites, including details of the terms and conditions, and how to apply. Normally VASL advertises the award and submits a shortlist of applicants to Gasworks which leads on the final selection.