ByAnonymous, Anonymous
A charity supporting Jewish students in financial difficulty has made a record number of disbursements this year as the recession bites.
The Finnart House School Trust has awarded scholarships totalling over £180,000 to 30 students starting at universities including Oxford, Manchester and UCL this autumn.
Clerk to the trustees Peter Shaw said that although the awards were based on need, students had to prove they were capable of completing their degrees.
The trust has been awarding scholarships since 2001, having evolved after the closure in the 1970s of Finnart House School, which taught boys who had been orphaned, abandoned or who had other problems.
“We have seen that since we started, a lot of youngsters have gone to college who would not have been able to do so without our support. Our efforts have proven worthwhile as more of our graduates have been gainfully employed.”
A Nottingham medical student has been one of this year’s beneficiaries. She said the award had been “a massive weight off my shoulders. People are suddenly realising that their parents can’t give as much as they thought they could.”
She said her scholarship would cover hefty start-up costs, such as textbooks and stethoscopes. “I’ve wanted to study medicine for so long and with the scholarship, it’ll be a little less worrying.”
Another recipient, who will be stu-dying architecture in London, said: “It would have been much more difficult to go to university without this help. My student loan only covers accommodation and I have a grant that only covers the course fees, so this funding is going towards my living expenses. I’m pretty grateful.”