Raising funds to support students

University staff are undertaking a number of fundraising challenges to raise money for student scholarships and access to learning funds.

Hardship amongst students has become a real issue in recent years.

Students in England no longer benefit from grants. The availability of government loan funding for maintenance has fallen well behind the rate of inflation.

Many Worcester students work for up to 20 hours a week to enable them to continue their studies and the University sustains one of the UK’s largest “earn whilst you learn programmes” – but personal circumstances sometimes make participation difficult or insufficient. Students studying on many health and education courses will spend over 2,000 hours on professional placements, making additional part-time work difficult.

Worcester is currently the best University in the UK for sustained employment 5 years after graduation but students need funds to enable them to earn their qualifications and reach their goal.

• The University’s student services team operate a carefully organised, scrupulously administered scheme to support students encountering significant hardship due to adverse individual circumstances.

• Our academic scholarship scheme, which is supported by generous donors, celebrates student academic excellence annually. These scholarships make a real difference to the lives and prospects of the winners.

With your support, we will strengthen and expand our hardship and scholarship programmes. A contribution to the fund is a gift with great impact that will resonate into the future.

The Challenge

The Vice Chancellor, Professor David Green, will be walking the 280km (174 miles) from Porto in Portugal along the pilgrim ‘Portuguese Coastal Camino’ to Santiago de Compostela in Spain in May as his personal contribution to the campaign. All costs of the walk will be met by David personally. He will walk during a period of his annual leave.

Alongside the Vice Chancellor's trek, University of Worcester staff will be undertaking a 24-hour challenge in June. 9 teams from the University have signed up for the challenge, where they will be competing for trophies for the fastest team and the most fundraised.

The 24 hour challenge includes 19-mile night walk across the Malvern Hills, finishing at the Rowing Club by Worcester race course, followed by a canoe race from Worcester Rowing Club to Diglis Basin and back, a wheelchair basketball session in the University of Worcester Arena, an ultra-fit session (various exercises to complete in set times at the University Strength & Conditioning Suite), an open water 400m swim at the University's Lakeside Campus, a climbing wall/zipwire & water assault course and a whole team tractor pull.