“The British Lebanese Association sees its Scholarship award scheme as the jewel in its crown and is pleased to have supported generations of Lebanese scholars who have gone on to do outstanding and important work. The Association operates the scheme in conjunction with and particularly values the support, expertise and kindred spirit of the Said Foundation.”
Sir David Richmond Chairman British Lebanese Associatio
The BLA’s scholarship scheme has been the flagship activity of the Association since it was founded in 1984. We are proud of the many scholars we have helped in their careers by supporting their studies at a university in Britain.
The purpose from the start has been to help Lebanon build its human capital for the benefit of the country as a whole. We aim to do this by providing fully-funded scholarships at Master’s level, in subjects we consider to be of the widest and most lasting benefit to Lebanon’s development.
Lebanon has long been a country of emigration, with a large and active diaspora keeping close ties with the homeland. Our aim has been to encourage and support those who have not had the chance to study abroad, and who see themselves spending their working lives in Lebanon, contributing to its skills and cultural richness.
For this reason we limit applicants to Lebanese nationals who live in Lebanon and intend to return there after their Master’s studies in the UK. We only take the very brightest academically, and we favour those whose family situation would not otherwise allow the chance to study abroad.
We are strictly non-sectarian in our choices, and welcome applicants from all Lebanon’s communities.
We favour certain subject areas that we consider to be of most benefit to Lebanon’s future. These cover policy for the economy, education, health, the environment, energy efficiency; also media and communications, the arts, human rights, refugee studies and post-conflict management. We further have a tradition of helping build Lebanon’s human resources in the form of psychologists and psychotherapists.
We look for outstanding individuals with a record of voluntary service, and with a clear humanitarian and progressive vision for their society. We strongly prefer our applicants to have worked or gained experience since obtaining their first degree. It is unusual for us to award a scholarship to someone who has just completed their studies at Bachelor level.
In order to focus our limited resources on these areas, we exclude clinical medicine of all kinds, including dentistry, as well as all business and financial studies, computer studies, engineering and scientific research.
We do not fund studies at the level of Doctorate, other than in rare cases where an existing BLA scholar justifies it, and then only if resources are available.
APPLICATIONS
Scholarships for the academic year 2020-21 have already been awarded.
For the academic year 2021-22, we recommend you apply to the the Said Foundation on https://www.saidfoundation.org. The BLA will not be running a programme of its own. Another provider of scholarships for Lebanese nationals is the Chevening Programme administered by the British Embassy in Beirut. https://www.chevening.org/scholarship/lebanon/
We shall provide information about other schemes for future years as it becomes available.
