Malagasy Lipscomb Students Maintain Government Scholarships Despite Coup

Twenty-six students from Madagascar who started at Lipscomb University last fall have been granted another year’s tuition from their government despite a recent coup.

The Madagascar government sent the students to the church-based university to study business and engineering then return to the island nation, which is one of the poorest in the world. Then-Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana even visited the school. When his archrival seized power in March, Lipscomb officials began fundraising to replace the government scholarships.

Then last month, the university mysteriously received a check for more than $800,000 from the Madagascar embassy. Lipscomb’s Jim Thomas says he believes some of the students’ parents who retained jobs within the government made their case.

“Their plea to the minister of education was this is a Madagascar government commitment, not a Ravalomanana commitment, and the minister of education evidently bought into that concept and provided the funding through the minister of education.”

Thomas says the Malagasy sophomores still face great challenges. Some of their parents remain in jail following the coup. Also, the government has not committed to continue paying for the students to attend college here.