COVID-19 Contingency Fund
Supporting our students through the crisis
You will have read in recent messages how the College is helping with the current pandemic, including the contributions of Churchillians involved in commenting and responding to the Covid-19 crisis.
The College is also maintaining support for the students left here and its staff, having furloughed many staff on full pay. All teaching and exams have been delivered online and our tutorial team have all been working as hard as ever to support our students wherever they may be in the world. Looking ahead , we plan to welcome students back to College in the Michaelmas term, as long as it is safe to do so.
The College is now faced with a 30% drop in income as we have lost almost all our rental and conference income this term and over the summer months, amounting to a shortfall of £1.3 million.
We anticipate during the coming months we will have greater demands from students for support: for postgraduates not funded by Research Councils, for student hardship and for bursaries and studentships as families struggle to deal with the economic consequences of the lockdown. As ever, it will be those from already vulnerable and financially insecure households who will be hit hardest.
To meet these financial challenges the College has launched a Covid-19 contingency fund to support the College’s core costs and provide urgent support for students facing hardship.
- We are experiencing far greater demand for hardship funds from both postgraduates and undergraduates, due to changing circumstances brought on by the pandemic
- We will continue to have more demand for undergraduate bursaries next year, as families across the UK and the globe are hit by the economic consequences of the pandemic.
- In the case of postgraduates the many (including international students) who are not funded by UK Research Councils may not have access to resources to permit extensions to their time in Cambridge. This is likely to be a real threat to their ability to progress, write up and publish their results and they will look to the College for assistance.
In these uncertain times we are grateful for the past support of all our alumni and friends which have already given Churchill College the sound financial basis to weather this storm. In 2020 we launched our campaign Think Forward, which aims to boost our long- term financial sustainability so that we have some spare capacity to face any challenges the future may bring.
Help make a difference to Churchill students
“We know that the call on our funds for hardship and financial support will be greater than ever in the months ahead while College income from rents and conferencing has plummeted.”
We are immensely grateful to those of you who have recently donated or continue to support other causes inside and outside College, but ask those of you who can give any amount to consider making a donation.
If you are considering a major gift please contact the Development Director