As a humanitarian organization, promoting peace is a cornerstone of Rotary International’s mission, and one of the most effective ways it does this is through the Rotary Peace Fellowships, which train peace and development professionals to become effective catalysts for peace.
The fully funded Rotary Peace Fellowship covers tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and internship and field study expenses.
About 170 Rotary Peace Fellows are selected annually in a globally competitive process based on personal, academic and professional achievements.
Fellows can earn a master’s degree or participate in a one-year professional certificate program at one of the Rotary Peace Centers located at leading universities around the world.
The master’s degree program lasts 15-24 months, including a 2-3 month field study experience.
It is offered at Duke University/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan; University of Bradford, Bradford, England; University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; and Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Participants may not attend a university in their home country. Fifty applicants, who must have three years of related work experience, will be chosen for this fellowship.
The professional development certificate is a one-year program for working professionals that blends on-line learning, in-person classes and an independent social impact project.
This post-graduate certificate program is offered at the Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda; Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul, Turkey; and Symbiosis International University, Pune, India.
These locations focus on working professionals with interest in peace-building in Africa, or North Africa/the Middle East, or Asia respectively. Forty candidates, who must have five years of related work experience, will be chosen for each of the three peace center universities, for a total of 120 fellowships.
Candidates for either program must have a gap of at least three years between the completion of their most recent academic degree program (undergraduate or graduate degree) and their intended start date for the fellowship.
Applications for the 2027-28 Rotary Peace Fellowships will be accepted online, Feb. 1-May 15, 2026.
For more, visit www.rotary.org/en/our-programs/peace-fellowships or contact the Rotary Club of Santa Barbara Sunrise at janetvnapier@gmail.com.