The Commonwealth of Nations is an international mutual aid organization comprising 56 sovereign states. The Commonwealth is not a united federation or confederation, and most of its member states are former British colonies and self-governing dominions, although all member states have equal status within the organization. Successive Commonwealth Heads of State have usually been British monarchs, the first being George VI and the current being Charles III. The legal basis of the Commonwealth is the Singapore Declaration of 1971, according to which it cooperates. The member countries areStrong circulation in tourism, study abroad, and tradeCommonwealth members share and practise a wide range of universal values, including the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance and integrity, the rule of law, civil liberties, equality before the law, free trade, multilateralism, and the advancement of world peace. There are currently 56 Commonwealth member countries, 15 of which are Commonwealth kingdoms whose Heads of State and Commonwealth Heads are united with the UK mainland, now Charles III. The other 5 are countries with their own independent monarchs, which are Brunei, Swaziland, Lesotho, Malaysia, Tonga, and the remaining 36 countries are republics, including St. Kitts andDominican Republic.. The Commonwealth Doctoral Scholarship is designed to provide educational funding to some of the more backward Commonwealth countries, so as to produce more social elites. In some economically undeveloped Commonwealth countries, many talented students are unable to continue their education in excellent universities because they do not have enough funds, and this scholarship, which can provide them with a good opportunity to complete full-time PhD studies in UK universities.