Mr. George Soros and Dr. Jim Yong Kim Meet REF Scholarship Students in Bucharest

Bucharest, 9 May 2013

The Roma Education Fund was invited to join Mr. George Soros, Chairman of the Open Society Foundations, and Dr Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, during their Bucharest on 9 May 2013. As a co-founder – together with the former World Bank president James Wolfensohn – of the Roma Education Fund, Mr. Soros’ financial support has enabled over a half million young Roma to access formal, quality inclusive education from the preschool to university level.

Bucharest, 9 May 2013

During its eight years of existence, REF has developed and invested in best practice models for early childhood development, early school leaving, afterschool tutoring and mentoring, secondary school scholarships and university scholarships for Romani children and youth. Many of REF’s models, developed in close cooperation with a World Bank anchor team, could form the basis for national policies to implement Roma inclusion.

While in Bucharest, Mr. Soros and Dr. Kim held a discussion with a group of Romani university students whose opportunites to study at the university level and subsequent professional careers were made possible by the REF Scholarship Program.

RMUSP meets Mr Soros

The REF Scholarship provides financial support and academic support to Romani students in 12 countries of the Decade of Roma Inclusion, Moldova, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The program offers four academic merit-based scholarships:

• Roma Memorial University Scholarship Program (RMUSP),

• Roma International Scholar Program (RISP),

• Law and Humanities Program (LHP), and

• Roma Health Scholarship Program (RHSP)

The Roma Memorial University Scholarship Program (RMUSP) aims to facilitate the access for Romani students to tertiary education at state-accredited universities within their countries of residence. Since the 2008-2009 academic year, the RMUSP has expanded exponentially in all supported countries with the expectation of Macedonia and Turkey. The largest increases were seen in Romania (from 125 to 322), Macedonia (107 to 170), Serbia (65 to 90), Slovakia (28 to 69) and the Czech Republic (3 to 43). For the same time period, the total number of scholarships granted under the RMUSP increased from 647 to 1081.

Country	2005– 2006	2006– 2007	2007– 2008	2008– 2009	2009– 2010	2010– 2011	2011– 2012	2012-2013	Total
Romania	228	243	160	125	221	268	320	322	1,887
Bulgaria	151	140	172	178	203	254	219	204	1,521
Hungary	90	96	114	107	147	140	166	170	1,030
Macedonia	55	70	113	111	123	106	106	80	764
Serbia	51	48	55	65	76	71	97	90	553
Slovakia	36	25	26	28	35	30	45	69	294
Turkey	n/a	4	6	44	67	80	36	30	267
Czech Republic	16	15	12	3	13	35	30	43	167
Kosovo*	0	0	12	2	17	21	17	23	92
Albania	n/a	n/a	n/a	4	11	17	36	37	105
Bosnia and Herzegovina	n/a	n/a	n/a	4	4	7	6	6	27
Croatia	0	2	2	2	1	0	3	2	12
Montenegro	See Serbia	0	6	1	1	0	0	0	8
Total	627	643	678	674	919	1,029	1,081	1,076	6,727

In 2012, REF’s Scholarship Program continued its support of Romani students pursuing higher education through the provision of both financial and academic support. Through its four scholarship programs, REF awarded 1,504 scholarships for a total of EUR 2,110,338 for the 2012-2013 academic year.

For the 2012-2013 academic year, the Roma Memorial University Scholarship Program supported 1,076 students with over 40 percent of scholarships being provided to new beneficiaries. The total amount of RMUSP scholarships disbursed during the academic year was EUR 1,143,409.

RMUSP supports a wide range of academic interests for Romani students pursuing Bachelor, Master, and Doctorate degree programs. Among the scholarship recipients, 72 percent are pursuing their Bachelors studies, 25 percent their Masters studies, and three percent were enrolled in Doctorate programs.

In the 2011-2012 academic year, nearly 35 percent of RMUSP beneficiaries specialized in Social Sciences, followed by Natural Sciences and Engineering (16 percent), Humanities (15 percent), Education (14 percent), Legal Studies (10 percent), Health (5 percent), and Arts (4 percent). As in the previous academic year, the countries with the highest demand for scholarships were Bulgaria and Romania, comprising nearly half of the total number of RMUSP grants. Scholarships are provided for one academic year and students have the possibility to renew their application provided they have successfully completed the prior academic year.

For more information on how to apply: http://tinyurl.com/cdbwxbx

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.