Student Support
In order to provide students with the financial assistance necessary, the College has made awards to students at a value of over £500,000 this year. We are experiencing an unprecedented level of demand for financial assistance from our students and as a result we have made the decision to remove the usual deadlines for applications, so that any student can apply for support if and when they find themselves in difficulty.
The College’s welfare staff and the decanal team have been adapting to the remote world, offering the support that would normally be available within College via online platforms to the best of our ability. Against the odds, almost all of our students have now completed their Trinity term examinations.
None of this would have been possible without the Student Support Fund, one of the key things which sets Magdalen apart from so many other institutions in the University of Oxford.
Still, the pandemic poses an intimidating array of challenges to our students.
Some, studying at home and sitting their examinations online, have faced problems with internet connectivity and poor IT equipment, imposing financial burdens that many families can ill afford in these straitened times, and which go beyond the usual limits of the College’s support fund.
Others, stuck in unsafe or vulnerable environments at home, or isolated from their loved ones entirely, face not only the uncertainty of the pandemic itself, but a catalogue of emotional and psychological strains, increasing the demand on stretched and expensive counselling services.
Meanwhile, the closure of libraries and laboratories continues to slow the progress of our research students, forcing many to delay or extend their studies, many incurring lots of unforeseen costs, some navigating rental markets put in disarray.
To many of these challenges, there is as yet no end in sight.
Students and staff alike are deeply grateful for the generosity of our alumni, which is helping us to ride out this storm. And we thank you all again for your continued and indispensable support in the difficult months ahead.
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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 can study at Magdalen without financial worries.
The Student Support Fund not only provides bursaries, scholarships and hardship awards, it also helps to fund Magdalen’s share of the Oxford Opportunity Bursary Scheme which is among the most generous financial support schemes in the UK. The Student Support Fund is now assisting about 100 of our current students each year.
Over the past 10 years over 50 Magdalen old members have endowed named scholarships and bursaries with the income from these awarded to students annually. If you would like to discuss setting up either a named award then please contact:
Sean Rainey
Director of Development
+44 (0)1865 286796
sean.rainey@magd.ox.ac.uk
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