CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY TO OFFER POORER STUDENTS FREE YEAR OF STUDY

Dozens of students from disadvantaged backgrounds that fail to meet the grades will get a free year of study at the University of Cambridge in a bid to widen access, the vice chancellor has said. As outlined on 4/10/18 by Eleanor Busby from the Independent

Professor Stephen Toope outlined more details about the “transitional year” for poorer students that the institution announced earlier this week. Professor Toope said Cambridge could not be an “excellent university” unless it was open to talent from every ethnicity in the UK and around the world.

He unveiled a £500m fundraising campaign to support students and to ensure the university was fully inclusive of the most diverse talent. Announcing the initiative in a speech to university staff, he said it was time to dispel the stereotypes of Cambridge “as a bastion of privilege and self-serving elitism”.

The one-year foundation course – for talented underrepresented students who are given an offer but miss out on the grades – would not cost the students any money, the vice chancellor said.

Initially, it would be available to “dozens” of students a year – with an aim to expand the programme.

“We will say here is an opportunity for you to come to Cambridge for a period of time, for free, because we are not going to ask them to pay,” Professor Toope said.

“We are working with philanthropists to try to fund this programme so we have access to people who otherwise would not be able to come here for that extra year.”

He added: “We give them the opportunity to get a leg up, to work with some of our academics, to make sure that if they are finally admitted into Cambridge they are really ready for the programme.”

The announcement comes after Cambridge and Oxford came under fire for a lack of diversity.

The vice chancellor said, however, that he could not guarantee that all of the students placed on the foundation programme would be admitted to Cambridge. But added: “I think we will be able to pretty much guarantee that they will be able to go to a top university.”