Student Support

In 2003 Magdalen launched the Student Support Fund, to help the College to maintain its crucial principle of offering access to students by merit alone and to help to ensure that no student abandons their course as a result of financial hardship.  An increasing number of students are finding it a challenge to complete their course because of the rising living costs, increased tuition fees and reductions in government subsidies, so these awards are invaluable to ensure students selected to study at Magdalen can actually get the degrees they deserve

Scholarships and Bursaries


Scholarships and bursaries all contribute to the Student Support Fund and are an extremely valuable way of supporting our students. Over the past 8 years over 50 Magdalen old members have endowed named scholarships and bursaries with the income from these awarded to students annually. The Student Support Fund is now assisting about 100 of our current students each year.

A scholarship covers all the fees and a maintenance grant for the whole period of the course and is awarded before a student starts at Magdalen.

A bursary is awarded to a student who has a worthy financial need during the course of their studies.

Types of Award

Challenge BursaryIndividual donors of minimum £27,500 gross in five years can trigger matching funds from Lief Rosenblatt’s Challenge Grant, to enable them to name a ‘Challenge Bursary’ in perpetuity.
Named BursaryIndividual or group donors of minimum £55,000 gross may designate a Bursary solely in the name of their choice in perpetuity.
Named ScholarshipIndividual or group donors of minimum £110,000 gross may designate a Scholarship in the name of their choice in perpetuity.
550 ScholarshipThe donor of minimum £550,000 may name a prestigious and perpetual ‘550’ Scholarship, which would fund an international competitive open scholarship.

A bursary or scholarship can be built up by annual instalments over several months or years.  A bursary may also be converted into a scholarship at a later stage.

How the Fund is managed


The funds raised for Student Support are invested by the College to generate an annual income which will be available to Magdalen students into perpetuity.

The distribution of bursaries is managed by the College's Student Support Committee who convene on a regular basis, four times a year. The members of this Committee include the President, the Dean of Arts, the Chairman of the Development Trust, the Chairman of the Magdalen Society, the Senior Bursar and the College Accountant.

Keeping in touch


Once a bursary or scholarship is established, the donor will annually receive information about the allocation of their award. The College organises annual ‘Scholarship & Bursary’ lunches in College, when donors were invited to meet the current student benefitting from their support.