We are delighted to announce the six exciting projects that have been chosen to receive almost £200,000 of funds donated by alumni. The projects were chosen to maximise the impact and reach of generous alumni donations in support of current students.

As a university we have a responsibility to our students to ensure that we help them to fulfil their promise. This means opening the door of opportunity, but it also means breaking down the unnecessary barriers that stand between talented students and career success. This is the difference that our alumni supporters make, both through donating to funds and projects that assist students, and through volunteering their time and expertise to offer careers advice and networking opportunities to those who need it most. We would like to extend a huge thank you to all of our alumni for their continued contributions to our University of Hull community.

If you would like to give to the University of Hull, you can do so online here or find out more by emailing alumni@hull.ac.uk

1) HYMS WIDENING PARTICIPATION GATEWAY SCHOLARSHIPS

£30,000 has been awarded over six years to fund five competitive ‘Gateway to Medicine’ scholarships, offering £1,000 per annum per student.

The Gateway will provide a year of focussed teaching in human biology, combined with study skills, communication skills and experiences designed to raise students’ social capital, including clinical placements. Responding to a real need in the Hull and Humber region for more doctors, HYMS was awarded an additional 90 places as part of the government’s initiative to expand undergraduate medical education. The Gateway Scholarships are designed to raise the aspirations of exceptional local students who have the potential to become excellent doctors for the locality.

2) SOUTH AFRICAN VISITING FELLOWSHIPS

Wiseman Derrick Khuzwayo graduated from Hull with an LLB degree in Law in 1981, having been financially supported by his fellow students until his graduation through the South African Student Scholarship Fund. After his passing in 2017, a group of thirty friends of Wiseman from his days at the University established the Wiseman Khuzwayo PhD Scholarship Campaign. The aim was to fund a Scholarship at the University of Hull’s Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation. The scholarship, inspired by the memory of Wiseman, a prominent anti-apartheid activist, examined the links between migration, trafficking and contemporary slavery.

Additional funds raised in the campaign will be used to fund South African Visiting Fellowships for early career academics from disadvantaged backgrounds in South Africa to strengthen ties between the University of Hull and South Africa.

3) SUPPORT FOR SANCTUARY SCHOLARS

The University of Hull is proud to be a University of Sanctuary, which means that we are committed to giving asylum seekers and refugees the opportunity to study and fulfil their potential here.

We believe that higher education should be accessible to all on the basis of merit alone,so the University has provided three Sanctuary Scholarships to refugees this year. Alumni funding has provided additional accomodation support to one of the scholars.

4) STUDENT WELLBEING

Sometimes students need a little bit of extra-support. That might take the form of a listening ear to offer support and advice in a safe, confidential and non-judgemental environment for a student with mental health or wellbeing issues. It may be longer term support transitioning to University life for a student on the autism spectrum. Everyone in the University of Hull community takes seriously our responsibility to students to ensure that they are given the support and care necessary to help them navigate whatever obstacles are are in the way of them achieving success.

That’s why we’ve given almost £50,000 over three years to the Wellbeing team, so that they can broaden the services they offer enabling them to help the most vulnerable students. This will include suicide prevention/alertness training in order to help staff spot the signs of struggling individuals and decrease the chances of the worst case scenario happening.

5) STUDENT HARDSHIP

Often through no fault of their own a student may encounter financial difficulty, and the University provides a hardship fund to ensure that when this happens, the student is not forced to drop out of their course or to suffer the stress and anxiety caused by financial hardship. We believe that it is unacceptable that financial hardship should stand in the way of any student achieving their goals, and that is why we have provided additional funding and support to Student Hardship.

6) FULLY FUNDED PHD SCHOLARSHIPS

Universities are places where cutting edge research drives the social and technological advances that change our societies and improve lives. Take LCD technology, for instance, invented and developed on campus in Hull, and which is now a ubiquitous presence in our lives. This is why it is crucial that we keep offering opportunities to the brightest and most inquisitive young minds to develop their research and bring fresh ideas into the academic world.

Six outstanding projects from the University of Hull PhD Clusters competed for alumni funding, and a group project in the Faculty of Health Sciences was chosen to receive the funding. This means that some of our most promising researchers are now able to take the next steps in their careers in the inspiring surrounds of the alumni funded Allam Medical Building. We’re excited to see where their research takes them.