Nobel Peace Prize laureate and global girls’ education advocate Malala met personally with the holders of the OPP’s Malala Scholarships, which are supported by Malala Fund. These scholarships enable talented Pakistani women from less privileged backgrounds to pursue their studies at the University of Oxford. 

This year, the programme awarded Malala Scholarships to two exceptional women scholars. The first scholar, Zainab Aziz, hails from Loralai in Pakistan’s Balochistan region, and is studying for a Master in Public Policy. She hopes to bring a compassionate perspective to policymaking, and to challenge stagnant approaches and advocate for grievance redressal. Ayeda Hamed, the Malala & Hamid Ismail Scholar, is studying for an MPhil in Development Studies and is particularly interested in shaping public policies for social welfare and driving community-led reform for economic development.  

In her speech, Malala praised the OPP’s efforts in empowering scholars, particularly women, and emphasised education’s role in driving societal progress. She noted that, “Initiatives like OPP have the potential to change Pakistan’s future by equipping scholars with the knowledge and skills to serve their communities.”

Now in its third year of awarding scholarships, the OPP is supporting a total of 12 graduate scholars this academic year in fields as diverse as Law, Cybersecurity, Engineering, Medicine and Music. 

Founded by Professor Adeel Malik, Dr Talha Jamal Pirzada and LMH alumnus Haroon Zaman (2016, Jurisprudence), the OPP was created to create academic opportunities for talented Pakistani-origin students and to foster closer academic engagement between Oxford and Pakistan. 

Based at LMH, the OPP has provided almost £300,000 in total funding to support over 30 scholars over the past three years, and is one of the fastest-growing financial hardship initiatives in the University.