The plan was originally proposed by Canadian statesman Sidney Earle Smith in a speech in Montreal on 1 September 1958[1] and was established in 1959, at the first Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) held in Oxford, Great Britain.
In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which is the biggest contributor to the Plan, this process is managed by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in Britain, a non-departmental public body, and funded by the Department for International Development.
Since 2008, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office no longer contributes financially to the plan[3] and the number and type of scholarships available for students from more developed Commonwealth countries (Australia, The Bahamas, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Cyprus, Malta, New Zealand, and Singapore) to study in Britain has been reduced.[1].
[4] New reforms were developed to strategically align scholarships with mutual interests for business and innovation between Commonwealth nations.
[5] The first Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship for Innovation were presented in August 2017 to Joshua Cheong and Dr Khoo Hsien Hui by the Rt.