Starter Kit. Idea 332 of 500. Cluster 16
A scholarship fund run by an association of Sri Lankans abroad, with a condition: the degree, and 2 years at home after it
The mechanism, from the book
177,000 qualify every year and 45,000 get a place. The other 130,000 are a market that nobody has built for, and the polytechnic is not a second choice when it leads to a job.
The first step
Present the idea to one Sri Lankan association's committee abroad with a real student in mind: the course fees, the living cost and the 2-year bond at home after the degree. Ask the committee whether they would fund one place a year and on what terms. A committee vote to fund the first place is the proof.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan association abroad that wants its giving to bring a graduate home, and will fund a place with a bond attached.
- What leaves today
- Without a bond, a scholarship pays for a degree and the career that follows often leaves the island with it.
Ask first
- Inland Revenue Department. Ask how a scholarship paid from abroad is treated for tax here.
Check before you spend
How the return condition is written so it is fair and can be enforced, who holds the money, and what happens if a student cannot return.
Find out these three numbers
- What does one place cost for fees and living each year?
- How many members would give a fixed yearly sum?
- Which courses would lead to work at home afterwards?
A comparison from the book
The Chevening rule. Chapter Sixteen
"the scholar must go home for 2 years when the award ends, and Chevening will not sponsor a visa to stay."
A return rule turns a generous gift into training the island actually gets back.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.