Student Support Fund

Mar 11 2008 12:00AM

A generous donation of £20,000 from a local man is launching a Student Support fund to help students at University Campus Suffolk Bury St Edmunds.

The anonymous donor is a former student at West Suffolk College. He enrolled on an Access to Education course in his early eighties and was so impressed by the efforts of his fellow students to study and give something back to society, that he wanted to support future generations of students.

He said: “Learning is fun, perhaps particularly in older age, when it can provide opportunities to learn new things and to enjoy meeting people. Older people need to put their feet back in the water again!”

Inspired by this donation, UCS: Bury St Edmunds is setting up a Student Support fund which will earn interest, and the interest will be used to support HE students. Students who have a particular need - for example books, or travel costs - will be able to make an application for a grant from the fund.

“It is about providing that little bit of extra support for undergraduates who will want to stay locally, and work locally,” said West Suffolk College principal Dr Ann Williams. “The undergraduates are going back into our community. It is about buying into this very special concept of a university that is distributed and local.

“Our long-term ambition is to establish a fund of £100,000. This is something that we will build up over the years to provide continuing support for HE students.”

Because he has been a student himself, the anonymous benefactor recognised the difficulties, sometimes quite small things, which can make all the difference between success or failure, particularly for mature students returning to study.

“A student loan has to cover all sorts of things, and the more responsibilities a student has, the less that loan is going to meet them,” said HE co-ordinator Dinkie Williamson. “They can go through the normal channels, but the normal channels don’t go quite far enough.”

“We are inviting individuals or companies to play a part in supporting Higher Education locally,” said Dr Williams. “Company or individual donations will be acknowledged in our Graduation programme.”

The first company to contribute to this fund is Trotter & Dean of Abbeygate Street, Bury St Edmunds. John Dean-Bowers will be making an annual contribution.

To find out more about the HE Student Support fund, and how you can help, contact David Kent, HE manager at UCS: Bury St Edmunds, on 01284 716318 or e-mail david.kent@wsc.ac.uk