Brasenose is fully committed to finding and educating the very best and brightest minds. We invest significantly in access, outreach and admissions, particularly encouraging applications from students from non-traditional backgrounds. We need to make sure that all places offered are accepted, and not rejected because the applicant feels they cannot afford to come.
Oxford Bursaries
In support of this, Oxford University has put in place an undergraduate bursary scheme - the 'Oxford Bursaries', which are awarded on a sliding scale based on household income. Brasenose is fully supportive of this scheme and currently distributes around £110,000 per year towards it. Approximately one in five of our UK first year undergraduates benefits from a bursary.
It now costs an UK undergraduate between £13,000 and £17,000 a year to study for an undergraduate degree at Oxford University. How affordable for families would this be without help?
It is our ambition to guarantee College bursaries, thus helping to keep an Oxford education within the grasp of most households. We are acting now to raise an endowment to permanently provide these College bursaries, ensuring that Brasenose has as level a playing field as possible for undergraduate entry to higher education, a system of ‘needs-blind’ admissions; other Colleges and the University are doing the same. Please consider playing your part in helping Brasenose attract and retain the best minds irrespective of financial background by supporting bursaries here.
Student Support Endowment Fund
Our initial target is to raise a Student Support Endowment Fund of £2 million to endow 20 full bursaries. These bursaries are now automatically available for all UK students from households with a gross income of less than £42,600 per year. Maximum bursaries of £3,200 are available for UK students from households with a gross annual income of less than £16,000. At BNC, that’s about 10% of our UK undergraduates.
You can establish a separate, named endowment fund by donating £100,000. This can be spread over several years and, once complete, each individual fund would create a bursary for a UK student from a household with a gross income of less than £16,000. The recipient would be encouraged, but certainly not obliged, to give back to the bursary fund in later life - so there is potential for a multiplier effect.The bursary would be protected in perpetuity, meaning Brasenose would forevermore be able to help its least privileged students at a time when they most need it.
Members supporting this scheme will have the opportunity to meet the young people their gifts are helping where possible and appropriate. Gifts of £100,000 or more will be recorded in the College’s Benefactors Book. You can name your bursary after someone important to you – a friend, loved one, or perhaps an educator who has inspired you.
Any contribution to our Student Support Endowment Fund, or our Student Support and Access work, would be very gratefully received. Thank you.
