HEFCE grant to create postgraduate scholarships at Oxford

The University of Oxford has won £3 million from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to support progression to a wide range of Master's courses by UK and EU students.

The University made one of 20 successful bids for the new HEFCE Postgraduate Support Scheme, a £25 million publicly funded programme to fund pilot projects in 2014-15 that will test ways of stimulating progression into taught postgraduate education in England. The University has received the maximum grant available to an individual institution.

The money from HEFCE, along with £750,000 from the University's own funds, will go towards a matched funding scholarship programme for eligible students. Over 100 full and partial Oxford Graduate Scholarships will be awarded for study in 2014.

Dr Jane Sherwood, director of graduate admissions and funding at the University of Oxford, said: 'It is very important that students from all backgrounds who are interested in postgraduate study are not put off by financial considerations, so we are delighted that this grant from HEFCE will bring to over 1,000 the number of scholarships available to new postgraduate students in the next academic year.'

The University will also introduce at least 140 new funded internships for UK and EU undergraduates across 2014 and 2015, to encourage them to consider further study. In addition, at least 60 UK and EU master's students will receive new funded internships across 2014 and 2015, to facilitate access to the professions and academia.

The funding will also be used for a new adaptation of the Springboard programme, an award-winning personal and professional development programme designed to enable women to achieve their full potential. This will allow up to 200 UK and EU female Master's students at the University, to take part in the programme across 2014 and 2015.

The University will carry out research into identifying and addressing barriers to postgraduate study, and will share findings with HEFCE.

The new scholarships form a strand of the Oxford Graduate Scholarship Matched Fund, which was launched in September 2012. Since then, £34.1 million has been raised, which will be matched with £22.7 million of University funds to produce a total scholarship pot of £56.9 million. Twenty-one scholars have already been supported in 2013-14 and at least 47 scholarships will be supported in 2014-15.