The Global Scholars Symposium (GSS) is an annual four-day event that seeks to connect, inspire, and challenge postgraduate students in the UK. Founded in 2008, GSS brings together some of the world’s most accomplished and promising scholars to connect with remarkable global leaders in a focused setting. 

Now in its ninth consecutive year, the Global Scholars’ Symposium was first held at the University of Cambridge in 2008. Its founding mission was to connect Churchill, Clarendon, Commonwealth, Fulbright, Gates Cambridge, Marshall, and Rhodes scholars in an environment that challenged them to draw upon their wide variety of interests and expertise. In 2011, GSS expanded to include the Chevening and Weidenfeld Scholarships. In 2015, GSS expanded to all students pursuing postgraduate studies in the United Kingdom. From the beginning, GSS has been jointly organized by the scholars themselves from a range of fields and scholarship programmes.

GSS has been privileged to host many inspiring speakers, including the Dalai Lama, David Suzuki, Wanjira Mathai, former prime minister Paul Martin, Dr. Mo Ibrahim, Baroness Helena Kennedy, Dr. Joseph Nye, Dominic Barton, and Professor Jeffery Sachs.

GSS 2016 took place at the University of Oxford.