Bursaries and Scholarships

Bursaries for undergraduate and graduate students

At present, the average UK/EU undergraduate will spend at least £27,000 in the course of a three-year period of study for his or her degree. This estimate is calculated as:

The University fees are not payable until after graduation, which helps to mitigate the immediate financial effect, but even a student qualifying for maximum government grant support and a full Cambridge Bursary, will still graduate with around £10,000 of debt.

The Cambridge Bursaries scheme is a collaboration between the University, the Colleges and the Newton Trust (established by Trinity College to help students across Cambridge) to support students following the arrival of University Fees (also sometimes called "top-up" fees in the media). The proportion of the Cambridge Bursary awarded to each student that is paid by his or her college varies according to the college's means. In Robinson's case, the college contributes at least 2% of each Cambridge Bursary award.

The debt with which a student now graduates is incurred in addition to any living costs s/he may accrue during vacations. Many students reduce their graduation debts by working during vacations. Students coming from lower, but not the lowest, income backgrounds often have even larger debts accrued if they do not qualify for the full student loan, nor the means-tested statutory grants, and therefore run up larger overdrafts and other debts with commercial lenders.

For overseas undergraduates, the costs are significantly higher due to the completely unsubsidised fees that they must pay - a three-year, non-clinical, course typically costs around £66,000. For both UK/EU and overseas postgraduates, the situation is even more marked, with UK/EU postgraduate's spending around £42,000 for a three-year degree and overseas postgraduates around £80,500 over three years for a non-clinical science course.

This is a source of concern for Robinson and other institutions which seek to admit students on the basis of academic achievement and potential alone, so that the best students may benefit from the best education, regardless of economic, social or other influences on their background. For many first-generation applicants and for applicants from schools with little experience of encouraging their pupils to apply to Cambridge, cost, especially the level of debt to be carried forward after graduation into the student's working life, is a major deterrent. Not only do these students have to be willing to take on large debts, they must also forgo the income that they would earn if they were to work for the three years instead of studying.

In addition, each year there are students at College whose financial circumstances change through no fault of their own and for a variety of reasons, such as the death of a parent or the failure of a parent's or sponsoring company. In these cases it is essential to the completion of their studies that the College is able to provide them with assistance to bridge the financial gap.

In order to help students overcome such potential financial hurdles, Robinson offers a number of student bursaries in addition to its contribution to each Cambridge Bursary awarded to one of its students.

At present we have an annual income of around £33,000 from 4 bursary and hardship funds: the Bye-Fellows Fund, the Bursaries Fund, the Graduate Scholarship Fund and the Hardship Fund for Overseas Students. This income allows us to offer support of £50 to £1,000 per annum (or more in a limited number of cases) to an average of around 30 students - both undergraduate and graduate - each year. At present this allows us to support those UK/EU undergraduates requiring assistance, but we are not always able to meet the needs of our self-funded graduate students, nor all of the overseas students who find themselves in financial difficulty from time to time. We would like to increase the value of the bursaries funds so that we may offer financial assistance to all those students of suitable academic ability who require it in order to continue to be part of the Robinson community.

In order to increase the number of students that the College is able to support and the size of the grants awarded, we are seeking additional bursary funds.

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