Wikimania/Scholarships/2012

Number of scholarships

Organization	Full scholarships	Partial scholarships	Total scholarships	Estimated spend (Local currency)	USD
WMF	87	47	134	~$150,000 (TBC; not all these were accepted)	~$150,000
WMUK	6	3	9	£6,000	~$9,250
WMFR	8	0	8	€10,000 (+€10,000 to global pot)	~$24,500
WMAT	10	0	10	15.000 EUR (budgeted - actual numbers follow when financial report is soon ready)	~$18,250
WMAU	0	3	3	AUD$3000	~$3,000
WMCH	4	0	4	7500CHF	~$7,500
WMHU	4	2	6	900,000 HUF planned, actual around 1,400,000 HUF	~$5,750
WMIT	8	0	8	€10,000 (final expense € 8,900)	~$10,750
WMDE	20	0	20	€30,000	~$38,745
WMIL	4	0	4	$5,700	$5,700
WMPL	9	0	9	89700 PLN	~$28,460
ROSEdu	0	1	1	$1,000	$1,000

Acceptance rates by region

2012 Wikimania Scholarship acceptance rates were highest in Europe

Region	Applied	WMF accepted	Chapter accepted	Total accepted	Acceptance rate
Africa	73	11	0	11	15%
Asia & Pacific	365	37	5	38	10%
CIS	76	13	2	15	20%
Europe	269	18	67	85	32%
MENA	104	13	4	17	16%
North America	114	18	2	20	18%
South/Latin America	143	24	0	24	17%
Overall	1113	134	80	214	18%

Geographical distribution of scholarships

Note: graphs do not yet contain Australia chapter scholarship numbers

2012 Wikimania Scholarship distribution by country (WMF & Chapter)	By region, proportions of applicants at each stage

See "By Country" for breakdown

Average scores of applications by region

2012 Wikimania Scholarship applicant and recipient scores

Note: graphs do not yet contain Australia chapter scholarship numbers
The applications were judged on a 5-point scale on the following three categories:

Activity within Wikimedia projects (weight: 50%)
Activity outside Wikimedia (weight: 15%)
Future goals for participating in Wikimedia movement (weight: 35%)

For full definitions of these scoring groups, see 2012 Wikimania Scholarships Selection Criteria.

Region	WMF - full	WMF - partial	Chapter	Accepted avg	None^†	Applicant average
Europe	3.7	3.5	2.8	3.0	2.6	2.7
Asia-Pacific	3.2	3.1	3.7	3.2	2.2	2.4
Latin America	3.3	2.8	0.0	3.2	2.3	2.6
North America	3.2	3.1	3.0	3.1	2.2	2.4
MENA	2.9	3.2	3.1	3.0	2.1	2.3
CIS	2.9	2.3	2.6	2.7	2.2	2.3
Africa	2.7	2.7	0.0	2.7	2.0	2.3
Total	3.1	3.1	2.8	3.0	2.2	2.5

†These averages are only for the 606 applications which made it to the 2nd round. The additional ~500 applications included both spam, blank applications, and some applications which were guaranteed to receive scholarships. The goal of filtering for the first round was to lighten the workload for the scholarship committee in round 2 which received score reviews.

WMF Full Scholarship Acceptance

Asia & Pacific, South/Latin America, and CIS had the highest number of declines.	The primary reason for declining the scholarship was visa/passport constraints.	Visa for Washington D.C. were a problem everywhere outside of North America and Europe.

Assessment

While the scholarships outcomes were good, there were three fundamental issues that arose, which you can find a more detailed expose of in Scholarships Proposals. The top things that are immediately in need of change:

Non-transparent process	Difficulty selecting right mix of scholars	Frustrating communication	High decline rates of recipients
Selection criteria not clear	Selection Criteria not effective	No coordination with program team	Too short of a timeline
Scores not announced	Low involvement of scholarship review committee	Chapters not coordinating across teams	Visa complications
No communication between application and announcement	Limited resources to send all qualified applicants		Partial Scholars unable to afford remainder

While many little tweaks can and should be made, the most high-impact ones of focus should be:

Formation of scholarship committee; increase # of representatives and create 2-year terms.
Communicate with applicants at various stages in the application process
Post the average scores from the regions upon announcement of the results
Limit WMF scholarship funding to applicants who do not qualify for Chapters Scholarships

Notes

The acceptance/awarded numbers do NOT indicate those who actually attended Wikimania
The acceptance numbers DO include those five individuals who were placed on the Waitlist for WMF scholarships, as all of them were offered scholarships eventually
The individual names are not able to be announced, as the scholars for this year did not agree to have their identities disclosed. Next year, we are considering adding this into the acceptance process. (See Discussion on Scholarships)