SPECIAL FEATURE
The Asian Development Bank– Japan Scholarship Program R E Y R E Y E S Executive Managing Director, SSAR
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HEN THE Admissions Office gets a query regarding AIM’s programs, that query most often comes with a request for a scholarship, preferably one granted by the Asian Development Bank. Formally known as the Asian Development Bank-Japan Scholarship Program (ADB-JSP), this scholarship was established in 1968 to enable qualified citizens of ADB’s developing member countries to undertake graduate and postgraduate studies in economics, business, management, science and technology, and other fields. After graduation, these scholars are expected to return and contribute to their respective countries’ socioeconomic development. It is easy to see why the ADB-JSP is so attractive. At AIM, recipients get full program coverage. This means the scholarship pays for all school fees—tuition and miscellaneous. It provides for round-trip travel expenses from the scholar’s country to the designated institution and back. In addition, the scholar is also provided with separate allowances for housing, subsistence, books and instructional materials, and research. In exchange for providing all these, the ADB-JSP does not even require specific performance levels from its scholars, such as maintaining a minimum grade average or being in a specified percentage at the top of the class. Rather, it requires that its scholars return to their countries and contribute to its socioeconomic growth. It also requires that its scholars keep in touch with the organization after they have graduated for purposes of tracer studies and improvements in the program. This scholarship is fully funded by the Japanese government, which has contributed more than US$76 million since 1988. The funds given vary from year to year. This, along with the rising costs incurred by scholars in the
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designated institutions, affects the number of scholarships that are granted. For instance, the 146 scholarships that were awarded in 2005 is lower than the 157 awarded in 2004, or the 170 awarded in 2001. Presently, ADB awards 140 to 150 scholarships each year. Most scholarships are given for master’s degrees. Six percent are given for doctoral degrees and occasionally, short-term courses. In terms of fields of study, 41% of the scholarships were given for science and technology courses, 31% for economics, and 28% for business and management. In terms of its gender profile, males have traditionally outnumbered females. Lately, efforts to promote female participation in development efforts have led to an increase in the proportion of
ADB-JSP recipients get full program coverage— tuition and miscellaneous fees, round-trip travel expenses and separate allowances for housing, subsistence, books and instructional materials and research. female scholars from 18% in 1988 to 42% in 2005. This conscious effort on the part of ADB has given rise to comments that an applicant had a better chance of bagging an ADB scholarship if that applicant was female, working in the public sector or for an NGO. From 1988 to 2005, the ADB-JSP has awarded 1,926 scholarships to students from 35 ADB member countries. Sixty-one percent of these scholars come from the poorest seven of these countries namely: Vietnam, Nepal, China, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia and India. ADB has 20 designated institutions/schools that offer programs that the ADB is willing to give scholarships for. Seven of these institutions are in Japan and get half of all the scholarships allocated for
A I M A LU MNI LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE July to September 2007
the year. The rest are in the other member countries. In the Philippines, the designated institutions are the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Laguna. Among the designated institutions, the Asian Institute of Management has the biggest number of recipients—349 out of 1,926 (18%) from 1988 to 2005. This school year, ADB is allocating 22 scholarships for students studying in the various programs of AIM. The Center for Development Management gets the biggest share of scholarships given out each year. For this year, there are two scholars in MBA1, six continuing scholars in MBA2, and one continuing scholar in ME Social Development. There are three scholars in the MM program this year, reduced from four last year. The slot taken from MM was given to the MDM program, giving them 10 slots this year. The main thrust of the ADB-JSP initiative is to support masters degree programs in three traditional areas: science and technology, business and management, and economics. In the last five years, other fields of interest have been supported such as development studies, public policy, international development, public health, environment and natural resources, urban and regional planning, and rural development. Aside from broadening fields of interest, the program also seeks to broaden the geographic distribution of its scholars, particularly among member countries with critical poverty alleviation needs. Because of the attractiveness of the scholarship package, many student applicants aspire to be ADB scholars. This is not as easy as it seems. In AIM, the path taken by an ADB recipient is described below. In all queries of this kind the admissions office responds to, we tell the applicant that the first thing they need to do is get accepted into a program offered by an ADB designated institution. This means getting a letter of ac-