Mission Statement

Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission (Marshall Commission):

As future leaders, with a lasting understanding of British society, Marshall Scholars will strengthen the enduring relationship between the British and American peoples, their governments and their institutions.

Marshall Scholars are talented, independent and wide-ranging, and their time as Scholars will enhance their intellectual and personal growth. Their direct engagement with Britain though its best academic programmes will contribute to their ultimate personal success.

The objectives of the Marshall Scholarships are:

To enable intellectually distinguished young Americans, their country's future leaders, to study in the UK.
To help scholars gain an understanding and appreciation of contemporary Britain.
To contribute to the advancement of knowledge in science, technology, the humanities and social sciences and the creative arts at Britain's centres of academic excellence.
To motivate scholars to act as ambassadors from America to the UK and vice versa throughout their lives thus strengthening British American understanding.
To promote the personal and academic fulfilment of each scholar.

Marshall Scholars support the aims of General Marshall when, in 1947. he proposed the idea of American economic assistance for post-war Europe. He said "An essential part of any successful action on the part of the United States is an understanding on the part of the American people of the character of the problem and the remedies to be applied. Political passion and prejudice should have no part. With foresight and the willingness on the part of our people to face up to the vast responsibilities which history has clearly placed upon our country, the difficulties...can and will be overcome". Successive British Prime ministers have endorsed these ideals.

Marshall Scholarships are special and distinguished in that:

Scholars can come from any US university and are free to choose their course of study at any UK institution, thus offering them maximum freedom and independence.
They are the only scholarships funded substantially by Her Majesty's Government. This provides unique and wide access and links with the British government and its peoples.
The rigorous selection process, run locally in each of eight American regions, is managed by distinguished panels from a broad spectrum of government, academia and business, many of them Marshall alumni.
The life long network of Marshall alumni facilitates continued engagement in the fostering of the trans-Atlantic relationship with attendant benefits to Scholars on their return to the US.
The Marshall Commission provides help and support for Scholars to ensure that their time in the UK is well spent.

Founded by a 1953 Act of Parliament, Marshall Scholarships are mainly funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and commemorate the humane ideals of the Marshall Plan. They express the continuing gratitude of the British people to their American counterparts.

The Scholarships are administered by the Marshall Commission on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Secretariat is provided by the Association of Commonwealth Universities. In the US the selection process is managed by the regional Consulates General in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, and in Washington DC by the British Embassy.