The first Commonwealth Study Conference was held at Oxford in the United Kingdom in 1956. It was, in the words of its Founder, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, “an extraordinary experiment”. It set out to provide an opportunity for high potential individuals from many different countries and all walks of life to leave behind their usual roles and, together, examine the relationship between industry and the community around it. The purpose was not to produce high sounding resolutions and weighty conclusions but to challenge the participants’ assumptions and preconceptions: to give them the chance to examine real situations and issues arising from the interaction of businesses, their employees and the communities in which they operated.
The goal of the CSC Global Alumni organisation is to created a sustained network of alumni and continued sharing and connection among generations of alumni of Commonwealth Studies Conference affiliated programmes.
Since 1956 over 6,800 Current & Emerging Commonwealth Leaders have attended over 45 CSC Affiliated Programmes from over 50 Participating Countries.
In 1998 the first signs of generational change at the conference started to appear. Now in his 42 year of involvement with the Commonwealth Study Conferences HRH, The Duke of Edinburgh did not attend the opening plenary of CSC 1998 in Canada. Instead Chairman of the UK Trustees, HRH, The Duke of Kent addressed the 200 conference members on the theme challenges of the “global infodustrial society”.
Prince Philip attended the closing plenary addressing the theme by making it clear at age 77, he was still attuned to the current debates about contemporary life. The Prince noted that all the presentations addressed “how important people were. This can be very easily forgotten. If you look at economic surveys and global reports, it very seldom mentions people. It always mentions trends and developments and things but at the bottom of it all, and the whole point of everything we do, is for the benefit of people.”
Prince Philip cited the “tremendous influence of information technology on changing people’s lives and the way they work and the way they live and the whole of the social structures. The information technology is tending to globalize everybody so that now is the point in time to worry about, it seems to me, the extent to which you can retain local cultures and traditions in spite of having a technology, a technology which can transmit not just ideas and information but is in itself almost a creator of a culture.”
The Commonwealth Study Conference hosted by Australia in 2003 would become the first Conference of a new era.
It boasted a great many firsts: it was the first Conference of the 21st century, the first which Prince Philip did not attend (he had just turned 82), the first where the HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, represented her father.
In a letter to HRH, Prince Philip dated April 5, 2002, the Chair of the Australian Executive Committee, Richard (Dick) Warburton addressed the need for generational change.
“We considered that the participation of HRH Princess Anne in the 2003 Conference activities would be ideal. The presence of the Princess Royal would reflect a clear recognition of the position of women in modern society and her wealth of experience to date would be most beneficial to the 200 or so high calibre men and women attending the Conference.”
Commonwealth Study Conferences now in their 66th year are lead by President and Patron HRH, The Princess Royal who carries on the work of the Founder, His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh.
Commonwealth Study Conferences (CSC) are held at global, regional, and national levels with three aims:
The next Commonwealth Study Conference will be held in Canada in 2023.
Further details here.
Other conference plans are in early stages for CSC programmes in Australia, the United Kingdom, India and Malaysia.
Read the Letter from HRH, The Princess Royal, Princess Anne on the legacy of the conferences and the next Commonwealth Study Conference in Canada in 2023.
Visit the CSC Canada website to read more about the first 50 years of the conference.
Visit our page on past conferences to read more about past programmes.
Join CSC Global Alumni to connect or reconnect.
The CSC Global Alumni connects, supports and develops our alumni so we can build our leadership character to impact the future for good.
The CSC Global Alumni enable local and international forums that bring together servant leaders to collaborate, share, inspire, develop and empower one another.
The primary objective of CSC Global Alumni is to pursue the following charitable purposes:
1. Enabling Alumni from Commonwealth Study Conference (CSC) and affiliated programmes to connect with each other as a sustained network;
2. Delivering a biannual global conference – or as directed by the Executive – for Commonwealth Study Alumni and affiliated programmes;
3. Enable the opportunity for continuing leadership development and connection of all alumni of the Commonwealth Study Conferences and affiliated programmes and support for future Commonwealth Study Conferences.
