Harkness Fellowships Alumni Fund New Award

Harkness Fellowships Alumni Fund New Exchange Award for Emerging Leaders

New Zealand alumni of the prestigious Harkness Fellowships exchange programme to the United States of America have raised funds to launch a new award allowing an emerging New Zealand leader in any field to study or research in the US. The international Harkness Fellowships programme, funded and run by American private philanthropic foundation The Commonwealth Fund, has operated in New Zealand since the 1950s but was restricted to the field of health care in 1997.

Many of New Zealand’s prominent Harkness Fellowships alumni, who include businessman Hugh Fletcher, lawyer Sir Bruce Robertson, Mäori leader Kara Puketapu, broadcaster Sharon Crosbie and NZQA Chief Executive Karen Poutasi, have become leaders in fields outside health, and it has long been an aim of the New Zealand Harkness Fellowships Trust, chaired by Professor Richard Faull from the University of Auckland, to reinstate Harkness Fellowships in non-health fields.

The new Fulbright-Harkness New Zealand Fellowship launched last week is offered by the Trust in partnership with Fulbright New Zealand (who continue to administer the Commonwealth Fund’s Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy and Practice also), and restores Harkness Fellowship exchange opportunities to a wide range of fields including business, politics, creative arts and journalism. The Fulbright-Harkness New Zealand Fellowship will be offered annually and is valued at NZ$15,000 towards the costs of a fellowship in the US for a minimum of six weeks. Applications for the first fellowship close on 15 March 2010. Further details of the award and an application form are available on the Fulbright New Zealand website – www.fulbright.org.nz

ENDS

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