Key governance documents

The Rhodes Scholarships and the Rhodes Trust are governed by a number of legal documents.  PDF copies of these may be accessed from this page.

The Rhodes Scholarships were established under the will of Cecil John Rhodes, who died in 1902. The terms of the will and its codicils were subsequently changed on four separate occasions: the Rhodes Estate Act of of 1916 (formally abolishing the German Scholarships during World War I), the Rhodes Trust Act of 1929 (which granted greater discretionary powers to the Trustees), the Rhodes Trust Act of 1946 (which formalised the incorporation of the Trustees), and  the Rhodes Trust (Modification) Order of 1976 (which, at the initiative of the Trustees, opened the Scholarships to women for the first time).

The Rhodes community consultation on governance led to the Rhodes Trustees in March 2010 adopting governance protocols providing for such  matters as composition of the Trustees, a nomination process and term limits, and expanded Trustee committees on Governance, the Rhodes Scholarship, Finance and Investment, and Development.

For a copy of Cecil Rhodes' Will and Codicils, the Rhodes Estate Act of 1916 and the Rhodes Trust Act of 1929, click here.

For a copy of the Rhodes Trust Act of 1946, click here.

For a copy of the Rhodes Trust (Modification) Order of 1976, click here.

For a copy of the Governance Protocols of 2010, click here.