5.2.3. Zois scholarships for gifted students
Zois scholarships, awarded to gifted students, are part of the overall attention and care given to gifted students and are designed to encourage their talents in intellectual or artistic spheres, with the expectation that this social assistance will be rewarded later on with outstanding achievements which will ensure the continued economic and cultural progress of the country.
The selection procedure was the same as in 1997. Zois scholarships are normally awarded after primary education to students, proposed by primary schools, who have performed well according to criteria relating to intellectual or artistic abilities, while candidates who are nominated by secondary schools or universities must also have had an achievement publicly-recognised. The criteria for establishing extraordinary intellectual abilities are defined in the Rules on Scholarships and in the internal instructions for the implementation of these rules. A new feature introduced in 1998 was that all proposals for Zois scholarships for the artistically gifted were processed by the Commission for Exceptional Cases at the HO, thus ensuring the uniform application of the criteria. The same Commission also assessed whether the achievement of a particular candidate nominated by a university was, in fact, sufficiently outstanding.
According to figures, the trend of the growth in the number of Zois scholarship recipients, typical of all previous years, remains stable: an increase from 9,592 at the end of 1997 to 10,259 at the end of 1998. This growth is the result of two factors: increased interest in Zois scholarships in the absence of company scholarships; and an increase in the number of candidates meeting the additional criterion on competition results, which improves their chances of acquiring a Zois scholarship in additional tests of abilities. According to estimates, 5% of those which achieved top results in tests of intellectual abilities are receiving Zois scholarships.
In December 1998, 10,259 students were receiving Zois scholarships; of these, 5,116 were secondary-school students and 5,143 university students. Thirteen secondary-school students and 158 university students were receiving Zois scholarships for study abroad.
For the fourth year in a row, the 'Zois Scholarship Holders Anthology' was published. Here, 391 recipients (of the 600 invited) who have or who are about to graduate or obtain a Master's degree in the 1998/99 academic year tell their stories. The Anthology is organised according to the ISCED standard classification of study courses and by individual RO. For the first time, employers who sponsored the publication were also given the chance to introduce themselves. As in the past, copies of the Anthology are available at all LOs, at the CVIG and on the Internet.
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