Jeffrey Cheah Foundation is now sponsoring Chevening scholars

KUALA LUMPUR: The Jeffrey Cheah Foundation has come on board as the latest sponsor to send Chevening scholars to Britain.

Foundation founding trustee and Sunway Group founder and chairman Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah said the foundation aimed to give back to society.

“On returning to Malaysia, they will be great assets to our pool of talented people who will contribute to the betterment of the nation,” he said after the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the British High Commission on Thursday evening.

The new British High Commissioner to Malaysia, Charles Hay, said: “If it weren’t for our sponsors, we wouldn’t have this number of opportunities for scholars to study in Britain.”

“It’s a great delight and honour for us to be working with the foundation for this programme,” he said.

The Chevening-Jeffrey Cheah Foundation scholar from Malaysia will be part of the 2019/20 and 2020/21 academic years to pursue a medical, physical or life sciences-related Master’s course at either the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford or Lancaster University.

The MoU was signed by Hay and Cheah. At the same event, Hay also welcomed back the 44 Malaysian Chevening Scholars from the 2017/18 academic year.

He said there were now more than 1,600 Malaysian Chevening alumni.

“This large number of Chevening scholarships is made possible by our local partners who provide additional funding to the Chevening programme in Malaysia,” he said.

The reception also marked the 35th anniversary of the Chevening Awards with a reunion of the Malaysian alumni from 1984.