Indigenous students head to Oxford, Cambridge

They're some of the most famous universities in the world and four indigenous students will make the journey to Oxford and Cambridge in the UK as part of the Charles Perkins scholarship program.

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The scholars represent a range of sectors including business, architecture and mental health, and today the British High Commission announced that four more scholars will further their studies at the prestigious Universities, regarded as the best in Britain.

Scholarship student, Vincent Backhaus spoke to NITV News about his hopes for the course.

"What I hope to achieve is to be able to bring that knowledge back to my community and to start working with young men, and just assisting them to find their career goals and their life achievement in in the pathways that they select," he told NITV News.

His grand plan that architect student Sarah Lynn Rees hopes to build on.

Sarah Lynn Rees will be studying architecture.

"There are only seven indigenous people in Australia that are registered architects, so there's not many of us. Hopefully I'll be the next one - number eight. So we'll see how that goes.

The Charles Perkins scholarships were set up to give Indigenous Australians an opportunity to gain a Masters degree in their chosen field.

Each scholarship, worth 50-thousand dollars a year, covers all tuition fees and living expenses.

Leila Smith, a Wiradjuri woman from Cowra, will make history as she becomes one of twenty people from around the world to take part in a new policy development program.

She hopes to make a difference in public policy on her return.

"That's what this course will do -- it's a brand new course," said Ms Smith.

"There's going to be 20 students from around the world and it's based on the best of the best policy courses from Harvard and Oxford to other leading universities. So it's really exciting.

Reknowned film maker Rachel Perkins, daughter of the scholarship's namesake, says it's an exciting time in the history of black education.

"We really feel that the legacy of Dad's vision that Indigenous people can surmount any odds, that they can achieve greatness in their life, flows through these new recipients of the scholarships to attend Oxford and Cambridge."



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By Jeremy Geia
Source: SBS

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Indigenous students head to Oxford, Cambridge | SBS News