The Kuberbhai Shivabhai Desai Trust was founded by Madhubhai Desai and his family to share the success of his long business career with those who are going to help in the development of the country of his birth, India. The Desai family has a long history in healthcare with Madhubhai practicing as a pharmacist for several decades and then co-founding a nursing care home business with his brother, Kanoobhai Desai, and one of his sons. Madhubhai's father, other son and grandsons as well as Kanoobhai's daughter and granddaughter are practicing doctors. Therefore, a partnership with the world renowned London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to enable students to further their studies in some branch of the health profession and take their enhanced skills back to India to improve healthcare in the community is a perfect fit for the aims of the Trust. The Trust very much hopes its small effort in offering these scholarships will assist a student who would otherwise not have the financial means to further studies to do so and then further improve healthcare provision in India.
These highly competitive scholarships are available to applicants intending to study on a one-year, full-time, London-based (face-to-face) MSc programme at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
Award details
Two scholarships are available for the 2023-24 academic year. Each scholarship will cover
- tuition fees, including any mandatory field trip fees, and
- a tax-free stipend (living allowance) of GBP19,500.00.
Eligibility for funding
To be eligible for these scholarships, applicants must meet all of the following criteria:
- be nationals of, and resident in India; and
- intend to return to India on completion of their MSc year at LSHTM; and
- would not otherwise be able to pay for the proposed programme of study; and
- meet LSHTM’s minimum English language requirements; and
- hold a first degree at either a first or upper second class equivalency level, and
- hold an offer of admission for 2023-24 for one of LSHTM’s 19 London-based intensive MSc programmes of study.
How to apply
The application process has two steps. To be considered for the funding, applicants must meet all eligibility criteria and complete both steps outlined below by the scholarship deadline of 23:59 (GMT) on Wednesday 01 March 2023.
Step 1
Submit an application for 2023-24 for a London-based MSc programme of study, as per instructions under the ‘How to Apply’ tab on the relevant programme of study page.
Step 2
Submit an online scholarships application, selecting this scholarship option ‘2023-24 Kuberbhai Shivabhai Desai Trust Scholarship’ from the drop-down menu.
Application notes
- Applicants are advised to complete Step 1 early to allow time for their GBP 50.00 LSHTM admissions application fee payment to be processed. Until the payment is processed applicants will be unable to submit an application for study. We would therefore recommend that applicants for this funding complete and submit their application for study at least 1-2 weeks before the scholarships deadline to ensure that there are no Admissions or payment processing delays which could impact on meeting the scholarship deadline.
(Where possible, we would encourage applicants to submit a complete application for study as far in advance of the scholarship deadline as possible, to allow for timely processing.) - Each applicant should submit only one application for the Kuberbhai Shivabhai Desai Trust Scholarship for 2023-24. We would therefore encourage applicants to check carefully their online application before submission, as the first application submitted will be the one considered and there will be no opportunity to update your application after submission.
- Applicants who have already submitted a completed 2023-24 London-based MSc application and/or have been made an Offer of admission should apply for the scholarship by completing just the scholarship application (Step 2 above) and submitting this by the scholarship deadline.
- Incomplete applications will not be considered for this funding. Incomplete applications include those with missing information at either/both Steps 1 and 2 above. Both the application to study and the scholarship application must be complete by the scholarship deadline. Applicants should ensure that all necessary supplementary documents (including references) are submitted via LSHTM’s Admissions Portal by the scholarship deadline.
- These scholarships are open to applicants for any of the 19 non-distance learning intensive Masters programmes offered by LSHTM (excluding our joint programmes: MSc Global Mental Health; MSc Health Policy, Planning & Financing; MSc One Health; MSc Veterinary Epidemiology).
- Applicants whose application for study is successful will be asked to pay a deposit within 28 days of the offer of admission being sent. Applicants applying for scholarships at LSHTM must email the Admissions Team to advise that they are awaiting the scholarship outcome (applicants must provide the Admissions team with both the name of the scholarship and the expected decision date in this email). This must be repeated for every application for which the applicant has applied. The Admissions team will then extend the deposit deadline to match the decision deadline of the scholarship funding.
- Applicants who encounter any technical difficulties whilst using the online scholarships application form should, in the first instance, try clearing their browser cache and ensuring that they are using the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari. If this does not fix the technical issue, please contact LSHTM’s IT Services team, providing the full name of the applicant; the scholarship that is being applied for; and the technical issue that has been encountered. Please also attach a screen shot where possible: servicedesk@lshtm.ac.uk.
- For any queries about the application process, scholarship requirements or application deadline, please contact the LSHTM Scholarships team: scholarships@lshtm.ac.uk
- By applying for this funding applicants agree to its terms and conditions.
- Please note that all applications will only be reviewed and processed after the deadline. All applications that are submitted before the deadline will be considered equally, regardless of submission date.
- Decisions will be reached, and the successful applicants notified, by the week beginning 26 June 2023.