The Ford Foundation's international scholarship program aims to provide opportunities for people with lofty ideals who have worked at the grassroots level for a long time and lack opportunities. Its ultimate goal is to change local communities that lack education and opportunities through education. The foundation firmly believes that only people who are born and raised, know the community and have personal feelings about the community can find the answer to the question. Therefore, the international scholarship program is to select candidates from social groups that are interested in serving the society and the community and lack opportunities for further study.

The method adopted is to hire experts from all sides through open competition, select outstanding talents from the applicants, and fund them to further their studies at home and abroad. These people must have proved their strong sense of responsibility to the local community through practice and demonstrated their potential leadership ability. At the same time, they must have the ability to complete their studies, especially good foreign language proficiency.

International scholarship programs usually support candidates to study for a master's degree, and very few people can also study for a doctorate. However, the selected themes and fields must conform to the goals funded by the Foundation, namely, promoting democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and improving human achievements. At present, the Ford Foundation's 2009 international scholarship program, which aims to help people with lofty ideals in China to study for their degrees at home and abroad, has started to apply. All applicants must first submit the pre-application form from the internet, download the formal application form from the internet, fill in it as required, and prepare the corresponding application materials.