“Winning the Jeremy Round Scholarship filled me with gratitude and a renewed commitment to give back to my community, through volunteering. Also allowing me to fully focus on my academic pursuits, the scholarship made it apparent that embracing the impact I can make is invaluable.” 
– University of Hull LGBTQ+ Scholarship Recipient 2024

We are proud to announce that the University of Hull has been chosen as one of the Rainbow Lottery’s good causes.

From every £1 ticket bought for our cause, 50p will be donated to support our pioneering Jeremy Round LGBTQ+ scholarships.

The Rainbow Lottery is the UK’s first and only lottery supporting LGBTQ+ good causes, and so we thought that it would be the perfect partner for the UK’s first ever undergraduate LGBTQ+ scholarships which are offered to students here at Hull.

The Rainbow Lottery was established by Tom Gattos and his partner, David Murray (pictured right), who, over lockdown, found themselves playing lotteries but couldn’t find one that exclusively supported the gay community. It is an exciting weekly lottery that raises money for the full spectrum of LGBTQ+ good causes totally, openly and exclusively.

Tom remarked:

“At the Rainbow Lottery, we’re passionate about supporting LGBTQ+ causes and making a positive impact in our community so we’re thrilled to be contributing to The University of Hull LGBTQ+ Scholarships. Our mission is to create a more inclusive and diverse society through a central arena of support. Together we have the power to rival even the largest lotteries in the UK and create enormous funding for our vital causes, but that can only happen when people join our rainbow revolution to make a real difference for as little as £1 per week!”

As well as supporting the LGBTQ+ community each week, players can win the jackpot of £25,000 or one of the other prizes: £2,000, £250, £25 or three free tickets.

Here at the University of Hull, we are proud to support our LGBTQ+ community all year round, and in 2021/22, we launched the UK’s first LGBTQ+ Undergraduate University Scholarship.

Since its humble beginnings, with the support of kind donors, the Jeremy Round LGBTQ+ scholarship programme is now in its third year of running, helping over 23 students so far.

The Jeremy Round LGBTQ+ Scholarships are available to students who identify as LGBTQ+ and have a household income of less than £25,000 and/or a disability. Named in memory of cookery writer and journalist (and University of Hull alumnus) Jeremy Round, each £1,000 award supports an LGBTQ+ student with the costs of study. The recipients also have the opportunity to meet with LGBTQ+ alumni who have enjoyed success in their respective fields, for advice and mentoring sessions. Mentors include the highly successful alumnus Jeremy Trevathan, of major publishing company Pan Macmillan, who generously helped to establish this award.

These scholarships have made an enormous difference to the lucky student recipients. Many of these individuals have been estranged from their families, bullied, and suffered prejudice. The scholarships not only support these students finically, helping them to buy study materials, travel and food, they boost students’ confidence and wellbeing.

Student recipients have commented that the scholarships have shown that their different identities are not only acknowledged here at Hull, but celebrated.

One of our LGBTQ+ Scholarship recipients explained:

‘LGBTQ+ students can often face many unique challenges getting to university in the first place and the support the scholarship gives can be an enormous helping hand.

These scholarships are very important to make sure that regardless of the disadvantages, people face in early life because of either our financial situations or just trying to live as our authentic selves, we have a chance to improve society and representation of marginalised communities across all parts of society.’

If you would like to support Hull students through the Rainbow Lottery, please check out their website >>