The Cambridge Overseas Trust has signed an agreement with the PEXIM Foundation to co-fund up to five scholarships each year, for students from Serbia or Macedonia who wish to study for a BA or Masters Degree at the University of Cambridge.

The scheme, which commences this year, will fund three students from Macedonia and two from Serbia starting their degree courses in Cambridge in October 2010.

The Foundation is the brainchild of Mihail Petreski, the founder of regional IT leader Pexim Solutions, and Cambridge Blues Basketball Coach Nebojša Radić, a Senior Language Adviser at the Cambridge University Language Centre.

“The whole idea is to finance and bring back students from Cambridge who will increase the capacity of Macedonia and Serbia for European integration” says Petreski. “In that way I believe that the Foundation will contribute to developing future leaders in the Balkans and bring it closer to Europe and the European Union.”

To achieve this, PEXIM Cambridge scholarship recipients are required to work in their home country for at least two years for each year for which they receive support.

By working closely with the governments of Macedonia and Serbia in defining the fields of studies, the PEXIM Foundation hopes to ensure that their scholars will work in the public sector upon return, allowing for their newly acquired skills to give the best results.

According to Petreski, “We have a raw model in Mr. Vuk Jeremić, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia who is a former Cambridge graduate.”

Michael O'Sullivan, the Director of the Cambridge Overseas Trust, stated that "Although we have seen few students from Macedonia and Serbia at Cambridge in recent years, they have made a reputation for themselves with their academic talent and motivation. So we are delighted to be able to work with PEXIM Foundation to widen opportunities for Serbian and Macedonian students at our University, and to assist the European integration process in the Balkan countries."

The agreement was formally signed in both Belgrade and Skopje. The Belgrade event was attended by Snežana Klašnja, Assistant Minister of Youth and Sports; Slobodan Jauković,  Assistant Minister of Education; and Stephen Wordsworth, UK Ambassador to Serbia and himself a Cambridge alumnus.

In Skopje, the agreement was signed in the presence of the Minister of Education, Nikola Todorov, who presented scholarship papers to the first three Macedonian recipients: Damjan Denkovski, Ivana Mateska, and Aleksandar Mitov. The scholars were also received by the President of Macedonia, Dr Gjorge Ivanov.