Mitchell Scholarship remains on hold as search for funding goes on

A prestigious scholarship programme will remain on hold because it is yet to secure additional funding.

The George J. Mitchell Scholarship was first paused last year while the US-Ireland Alliance, which operates the programme, considered its “long-term sustainability” in the absence of a significant endowment.

The Mitchell Scholarship funds postgraduate study in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland for up to 12 young Americans a year and was founded in the wake of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, in which US senator George Mitchell played a significant role.

Last year’s decision meant that no class graduating in 2026 was selected, and on 13 March it was confirmed that the moratorium would roll over into 2027.

The alliance previously estimated that a minimum endowment of $40 million (£31 million) would be necessary to ensure the scholarship’s sustainability, but said that the Irish government had “failed to address the alliance’s endowment requests”.

“Regrettably, previous Taoisigh [prime ministers] have made positive public statements that are not matched by what we are told in meetings with officials in the Department of Further and Higher Education,” said Trinia Vargo, the alliance’s president.

“In November, prior to his becoming Taoiseach, Micheál Martin acknowledged that the programme had insufficient funds from the outset. We welcome that recognition, and it is still our hope that the Irish government will endow the programme.”

Similar awards such as the Rhodes Scholarship, which funds postgraduate study at the University of Oxford, or the Knight-Hennessy Scholars programme, which supports postgraduate study at Stanford University, are thought to have access to much larger funds.

The alliance said it was also holding conversations with philanthropists about them potentially contributing to an endowment for the Mitchell Scholarship.

Vargo has raised concerns about the Mitchell Scholarship’s financial viability in the past: in January 2023, the BBC reported that she had written to then-US president Joe Biden as well as the Irish government to ask for their help in establishing long-term funding.

In 2014, the US Department of State cut almost half a million dollars in funding to the programme. At the time, Vargo told Times Higher Education that the government department didn’t appear to “care about Europe any more”.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com