£10m gift for graduate scholarships at University College

University College, Oxford, has received an historic £10m gift by a group of college alumni  to endow postgraduate scholarships. It is the largest single gift received by the college in modern times.

The postgraduate scholarships will be known as Oxford-Radcliffe Scholarships and are open to postgraduate students of all nationalities across a range of subjects.

The gift will trigger an additional £6.7m in scholarship funding from the University under the recently announced graduate matched funding scheme. The gift also includes a matched funding challenge to the college to inspire additional donations for the support of postgraduates, which aims to attract £8m over the next five years. This in turn will be eligible for £5.3m in matched funding from the University. If the challenge is met, a total of £30m will be available for the permanent creation of fifty graduate scholarships.

Sir Ivor Crewe, Master of University College, said: 'Our graduate students are a vibrant part of life at Univ and make a critical contribution to the outstanding research and scholarship accomplished at Oxford. This munificent benefaction will transform the college's provision of scholarships for our graduates, enabling the college to arrange within the next five years for a large majority of its graduates to be fully supported and to attract the most academically talented students from across the world – students who will lead and shape the future.'

The Oxford Graduate Scholarship Matched Fund will aim to raise £100m for new graduate scholarships by July 2017. Each scholarship with be funded 60% from philanthropic donations (up to £60m in total for the fund), with the University committing the remaining 40% (up to a £40m commitment to the fund by the University).