Top judge creates Cambridge scholarship for Queensland students

One of the state’s top judges has created a scholarship for Queensland law students to study at the prestigious University of Cambridge.

ONE of the state’s top judges has created a scholarship for Queensland law students to study at the prestigious University of Cambridge.

Court of Appeal Justice Anthe Philippides has created the Cambridge Australian Scholarship for Queensland, in honour of her late father Constantine Philippides.

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The $100,000 scholarship, funded in conjunction with the Cambridge Commonwealth, European and International Trust and Cambridge Australia Scholarships (CAS), is the first of its kind for Queensland students.

Justice Philippides herself received a prestigious British Council Commonwealth Scholarship to read for a Masters of Law Degree at Cambridge.

After discovering the scholarship no longer existed, she wanted to provide an opportunity for Queensland students to have the same “phenomenal” experience.

Supreme Court Justice Anthe Philippides. Picture: Steve Pohlner/AAP

“It is a way of honouring my father, who was someone who didn’t have the opportunity to study law and was very encouraging of me,” she said.

“And it’s very nice to be able to give back to the community as a whole.

“The student is able to enjoy everything that Cambridge has to offer including the artistic elements, the sporting elements, everything that makes that year something unparalleled.”

CAS Queensland director Philip Pope said the organisation — which was entirely funded by private philanthropy and currently supports about 30 scholars at Cambridge — was pleased when Justice Philippides approached them with the concept.

“This will be CAS’ first scholarship created for gifted students born in, or resident in Queensland who have graduated from Queensland academic institutions, and who have the aspiration to study for a postgraduate degree at one of the world’s top universities – Cambridge,” he said.

Any student from a Queensland university will be able to apply from now, with the selected student set to begin in the second half of 2020.

Justice Philippides is a passionate advocate for diversity and an important mentor for many law students in the state, including those from indigenous backgrounds.

“I would like the criteria to include looking at diversity and what the vision of the student is,” she said.

“There’s a great need for really talented people who couldn’t otherwise access a masters at Cambridge, for example, to be able to have that opportunity.

“Having come from a non-Anglo-Saxon background myself, and being a judge at a time when I was the only non-Anglo-Saxon judge on the court, it was something I was very conscious about.

“I think diversity is strength, and anything I can do to promote that is something I’m very interested in doing.”