Rhodes Trust and the Oxford pommie

A twitter discussion brought this about, wrote to Rhodes asking some questions.


A rather large discussion on twitter at the moment about one of your more infamous scholars.

I know the rules were changed after Tony Abbott got his scholarship but some dodgy things seem to have happened, are they within your rules and should you consider recanting the scholarship?

Mr Abbott applied for a Rhodes Scholarship when he was a British citizen living in Australia, he got his Australian citizenship in a rather mad panic in June 1981 to meet your qualification criteria.

In October 1981 he entered Oxford University as a British citizen rather than as an Australian. I know he had dual nationality but I thought the idea of the Trust was to give Oxford experience to colonials.

His entering as Briton rather than as an Australia would be an affront to you and may be in breach of your rules.

Students in Oxford at the time tell me there was a UK students allowance only available for British student so that might be why he entered Oxford as a Briton. Has he complied with your laws at the time?

If in breach of the laws can you rescind the scholarship and give it to a more needy beneficiary?

Do you monitor scholarship recipients to make sure they continue to live up to the ideals of the trust or is it all over when the leave university?


 Thanks again for your time


Tony Magrathea



The Oxford files are here:-

And the bit begging for pennies,the dreaded last bit of my blogs is here