Lewis Research Scholarship Fund

Lord Lewis of Newnham was the first Warden of Robinson College and oversaw the construction of the main College buildings in addition to establishing the academic and social structure of Robinson. He remains a Fellow of the College following his retirement, as well as being an active member of the House of Lords. To mark his retirement as Warden, Robinson established the Lewis Research Scholarship Fund.

Research students are absolutely essential to the success of an academic community because they are the future of the profession. In order to attract the best research students based upon academic merit alone and irrespective of their financial circumstances, it is important that Robinson is able to offer research scholarships. This is particularly the case in humanities research, as commercial sponsorship, grants and other scholarships are more widely established for scientific and medical research. To help to meet this need, the College established the Lewis Research Scholarship Fund in 2001. Until this year, it has produced an income of around £5,000 per annum, however, we would like to increase this to £20,000 per annum, the cost of a full graduate student scholarship in the humanities. This would enable Robinson to award a full scholarship to a humanities PhD student every three years and the competition for the scholarship should draw Robinson to the attention of other students who may also apply to become members of the College, thus further widening our pool of applicants.

When the Warden wrote to all our members and friends in January 2008, Robinson needed to increase the capital value of the fund by £350,000 to produce the income required for this scholarship. Thanks to a tremendous response from across the College membership, Robinson is now in the happy position of having increased the fund value by some £250,000 already. This leaves around a further £100,000 required to meet the target and endow the Lewis Research Scholarship in perpetuity. This is still a large sum of money, but it is achievable with the help of our members and friends and gifts of all sizes will all contribute towards meeting this target, as the response to date has clearly demonstrated.

Support from our alumni - no matter how large or small the gift - demonstrates that those who know our College best, our Members, care enough to make their own contributions. This also helps the College significantly in its subsequent approaches to other potential major sources of funding, such as trusts and foundations, which use alumni-giving rates as part of their assessment criteria for grant making.

To make a gift towards the Lewis Research Scholarship Fund, download the donation form. Thank you!