Twelve new scholars will be heading to foreign universities with the support of the Bakala Foundation

A total of 6 Bachelor's and 6 Master's students will head to leading universities in the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium from September. Most of them will study natural sciences, such as physics or epidemiology, while others have chosen engineering, social sciences, psychology or art studies.

Eight of the newly recruited scholars will head to the UK from September, with two choosing the University of Cambridge, two the University of Oxford and the rest heading to leading universities in London. Two students will go to Switzerland for their education, one to the Netherlands and one to Belgium.

This year's novelty is the increase of the amount that the Foundation allocated to support new scholarship recipients by one million crowns. The management of the Foundation took this step, among other things, in view of the current increase in fees at British universities as a result of Brexit. In the past years, the Bakala Foundation distributed an average of ten and a half million crowns per year among its student scholarship holders.

Of the total 193 applications, 22 students were invited for interviews. The expert jury, which as usual consisted of renowned experts from a wide range of fields, had the difficult task of making the final selection among the extremely talented finalists. This year, Michaela and Zdeněk Bakal also sat in it; further more astrophysicist David Heyrovský, neurobiologist Hynek Wichterle, molecular biologist Lukáš Čermák, or expert in artificial intelligence Michal Pěchouček.

The ceremonial end of the interviews took place in the gardens of the Vratislavský Palace in Prague, where Mr. and Mrs. Bakala thanked and congratulated the finalists and wished all students' further success in their endeavours.

Scholarship is the flagship program of the Bakala Foundation. In the 12 years of the program's existence, the Foundation has supported young talents with an amount exceeding 146 million CZK. With the new scholarship recipients, the number of supported students will increase to 183 from September 2021.