Winston Churchill Top-Up Bursary Fund

Churchill has one of the highest proportions of undergraduate entrants from the state sector amongst Oxbridge colleges and has historically excelled in student bursary provision, thanks to the generosity of Churchill’s supporters.

• 111 undergraduates currently receive a means-tested Cambridge Bursary.
• 68% receive the maximum bursary of £3,500 per year, awarded to those with annual family incomes lower than £25,000.
• Students in the greatest need also receive a top-up bursary of up to £2,000 (previously funded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust – WCMT)

Churchill has an unusually high number of undergraduates from very financially disadvantaged backgrounds. The top-up bursaries provide relief from the pressure of immediately having to find work in the holidays to pay rent to their parents or allow them to stay in College to study. In short, the additional sum takes considerable pressure off them and gives them choices, academic and otherwise.

Contrary to other institutions, students from this group excel at Churchill — a College that has been placed 4th/29 across the last decade in the Tompkins Table — bucking the national trend for students from disadvantaged groups to achieve lower results at university than equally qualified students from more advantaged backgrounds.

We attribute our success to the very close individual support we offer to students and to the top-up funding they are receiving.

We would like, as a matter of priority, to continue to fund the top-up bursaries but we need around £75,000 per year to maintain the level of support provided as the funding previously received from the WCMT for this initiative is now ending.