HP Cambridge Partnership for Education EdTech Fellowship: MENA Cohort Historical Reference

Status: historical reference, not an open call

The HP Cambridge Partnership for Education EdTech Fellowship’s 2026 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) cohort has closed. Cambridge University Press & Assessment’s official prospectus gives 16 January 2026 as the application closing date and says the programme was due to begin in April 2026. The current official fellowship website says it is not taking applications and that future regional application windows will be announced there. No next cohort or deadline has been announced, so this page is an archive, not an open opportunity.

The deadline field retains the real closing date from the prospectus, while historicalReference = true identifies the page as a closed cycle. The old MENA cohort page now returns an error; the link in this record points to the fellowship’s official page, which provides the current application status and registration-of-interest route. Use that site for future announcements rather than treating an old form or archived date as current.

The archived MENA cohort at a glance

The fellowship is run by Cambridge University Press & Assessment with HP Inc. It is a leadership and professional learning programme, not a university degree and not a general technology course. Its purpose is to help people with responsibility for education systems make better decisions about the use of technology.

Who the MENA cohort was designed for

The archived regional page describes two broad participant groups. The first is senior policymakers or civil servants working in ministries of education. Their responsibilities may include digital transformation, curriculum innovation, or education strategy. The second is a leader in a public or non-profit organisation that supports education delivery, teacher training, curriculum development, or technology integration.

The regional focus is the Gulf and North Africa. That means the relevant question is not simply whether someone works in technology or has an interest in schools. The stronger fit is a person whose role gives them a meaningful connection to education-system decisions: how teachers are supported, how curriculum changes are introduced, how digital services are governed, or how technology is used to improve learning. The official description names leaders who can shape education through technology rather than applicants seeking a standalone technical credential.

The programme page also makes the scale of the work clear. Fellows consider challenges across national education systems, not only an individual classroom or a small product team. The intended work may involve access, quality, safety, data use, teacher practice, curriculum, public policy, or the practical conditions needed for a programme to grow responsibly. A candidate preparing for a future cohort should therefore describe their actual remit and the education problem they can influence, rather than relying on an impressive title alone.

What the programme includes

The official programme information describes a five-month intensive study programme followed by membership in a wider alumni network. The learning is hybrid. Live online sessions use case studies, small-group collaboration, roundtable discussions, and expert speakers. Participants also complete independent learning and work on an applied, long-term project connected to an EdTech challenge in their country or region.

The learning is organised around three connected strands:

EdTech

The EdTech strand considers how technology can improve learning outcomes across a national system, while also examining evidence about what does and does not work. The published curriculum includes the role of AI in education, the quality and safety of EdTech solutions, data use and protection, and financing questions. This is a useful signal about the level of discussion: the fellowship is concerned with outcomes, safeguards, and public value, not with adopting a tool simply because it is new.

Policy

The policy strand covers evidence and user-centred design, prototyping and scaling, continuous improvement, and coordinated governance. The official description refers to collaboration across government and regions, along with regulation and cross-sector work. A participant might therefore use the applied project to test an approach to a real policy or implementation obstacle, collect feedback, and improve the plan before asking an education system to adopt it more broadly.

Leadership

The leadership strand focuses on stakeholder management across government, the private sector, and civil society. It also considers how to build confidence with colleagues and end users such as teachers and students, and how to plan for scale early in an EdTech project. The programme is designed for people who must bring different groups together, explain trade-offs, and maintain support while an education reform moves from intention to practice.

The official MENA prospectus lists personalised professional coaching and peer-to-peer learning alongside faculty-led teaching and the applied project. It sets a commitment of six hours per week: a two-hour tutor-led session and four hours of independent learning. Participants were also expected to attend a five-day residential academy in Cambridge in June or July 2026. The academy was an opportunity to work with experts on a region-specific EdTech challenge and develop a prototype. The current general contact page describes a four-hour weekly structure for the programme more broadly; the six-hour figure here is retained because this is an archive of the MENA cohort prospectus, whose stated schedule governs this cohort.

Funding and certification

The MENA prospectus lists the programme cost as £25,000. It says selected applicants may receive scholarships covering all or part of the programme fee. During application, candidates were asked whether they could cover some or all of the fee and whether they had access to funding for travel to the residential academy. A scholarship for programme fees should not be assumed to cover travel, and the prospectus does not promise that every Fellow will receive a full award. The current contact page continues to invite finance questions by email, but those details do not reopen this cohort.

Anyone considering a future cohort should ask Cambridge directly for its current fee, what a scholarship covers, and how residential travel costs are handled. The £25,000 amount and the funding questions above describe the MENA prospectus only; the programme itself warns that fees, funding opportunities, dates, locations, and contents may change.

Selected participants receive certification from HP and Cambridge University Press & Assessment. They also join a global network of education leaders after completing the five-month programme. The network is presented as a continuing space for sharing knowledge, trends, and experience around EdTech policy and implementation.

Application route for a future cohort

There is no open application to complete at the time of this update. The official fellowship page says that applications are not currently being accepted and invites people to register interest so they can hear when a future regional window opens. The official MENA prospectus documents the completed cohort’s application route; it should not be read as proof that its old application form remains active.

For the closed MENA cycle, the prospectus said applications opened on 2 December 2025 and closed on 16 January 2026. It directed applicants to the online form at edtechfellowship.cambridge.org/apply/. The form asked about professional background, the scope of the applicant’s current role, EdTech experience, regional perspective, and motivation. Applicants were asked to give thoughtful, detailed responses and could answer in text or short video. The prospectus also asked candidates to name a senior leader in their organisation who supported their participation; a formal recommendation letter was required only from selected Fellows, using a template provided by the programme.

Those steps describe the archived 2026 cycle, not a live application. For a future call, use this sequence:

1. Check the official fellowship site for a new regional cohort, dates, and application status.
2. If applications remain closed, use the registration-of-interest form on the official site. It requests a name, email address, country, job title, and how you heard about the fellowship.
3. When a new call appears, read its prospectus carefully for eligibility, cost, scholarships, dates, time commitment, and required materials. Do not assume another region or year will copy the MENA terms.
4. Use the new cohort’s application link and submit only while that window is open. If the form again asks for a role description, experience, regional perspective, motivation, or organisational support, answer those prompts with specific examples.
5. Email [email protected] for questions about programme fit, a prospectus, or future financial terms. The programme team is the authority on any requirement that is not in a published call.

The prospectus identifies English as the primary language of the course and says fluency is essential. It also calls for confidence working across government, academia, civil society, and the private sector. These were MENA cohort criteria, alongside a role in a K–12 education system in a Middle East or North African country. A future call may revise the geographic scope or requirements, so prospective applicants should verify them against the new cohort’s materials before preparing a submission.

Why keep a historical page?

The completed MENA cohort is still relevant to people planning education technology work in the region. Its design shows the kind of experience Cambridge and HP were seeking: senior responsibility, a concrete national or regional challenge, willingness to work with peers, and enough organisational backing to commit to a five-month hybrid programme and a residential academy. The curriculum also gives ministries and public-interest organisations a practical picture of the subjects involved: evidence, user needs, safety, data, governance, financing, leadership, and scale.

At the same time, a historical page must be honest about access. The prospectus deadline was 16 January 2026, the planned programme start was April 2026, and the five-day Cambridge residential academy was scheduled for June or July 2026. The official site now says applications are closed. There is no confirmed next cycle or replacement date in the current official information. Readers should use the official status page, register interest, and contact the programme team with questions. An archived application link is not an invitation to submit now.

Official links

• MENA cohort prospectus: archived eligibility, application dates and questions, cost, scholarships, programme format, and schedule.
• Official fellowship page: current statement that applications are not open and the registration-of-interest form.
• Fellowship homepage: programme overview and general information.
• Programme overview: curriculum strands, hybrid learning, coaching, and applied project details.
• Contact and frequently asked questions: scholarship questions, weekly commitment, residential academy, and fellowship email.