Why we need your support
By giving to the College I am, in my mind, now repaying that debt. Going to Churchill gave me confidence and a completely new and broader outlook on life, one that I have never looked back on or forgotten, and it proved to be a stepping stone to all that followed.
Eddie, Alumni
To continue to be an intellectual powerhouse we must meet a financial challenge to fund education in College sustainably. In recent years we have seen a huge renewal of support for the College from our alumni and friends.
Contributions in the last five years have supported several studentships for graduates, bursaries for undergraduates and ensured we were able to build Cowan Court, which means we are now able to house all undergraduate students on our site.
We are committed to recruiting the most talented students, whatever their background, and bursaries help us to ensure that we can encourage more applicants from low-participation groups. We have maintained a very high academic standard throughout this, and we also continue to have one of the highest proportions of state-educated students, with almost 80% of undergraduates coming from the maintained sector in the last admissions round.
We are also continuing to raise funds to endow graduate student support, and have some generous donations which have enabled us to offer to fund several studentships together with the Cambridge Trusts – the most notable being the Gulbenkian-Yuval Studentship. Complementing this is our current focus on graduate accommodation.
The education provided by College is funded partly by government fees – it receives a proportion of the £9,250 tuition fee that UK students pay and a proportion of overseas students’ fees. However this funding does not meet all of Churchill’s educational expenditure. In the last financial year, ending 30 June 2017, the College spent £4.7million on education- approximately £6,233 per student – it receives an income of £4400 per student or £3.4million altogether.
The difference of £1500 per student, or £1.3 million per year has to be made up from its endowment or other income streams. We already generate extra income via the conference business, but this has to be balanced with the use of our space for education and research.
The educational expenditure includes providing the small-group teaching which makes the Cambridge experience unique. Increasingly it includes providing pastoral support, and bursaries for around 100 students per year. The College receives no extra funding to reflect that students are taught in groups of 2 – 3 in many subjects, and the extra teaching resource required to meet this.
In terms of bursaries, the College is pleased to have a diverse student intake and it funds over £300,000 of undergraduate bursaries every year. The more of these we can fund from other sources, the more possible it is to spend some of the funding on outreach and other aspects of education.
Some of the difference in funding comes from the College’s endowment- around £3million per year is drawn down from it to provide teaching, bursaries and subsidise accommodation to make it affordable for undergraduate and advanced students alike. Having been founded in 1960, Churchill doesn’t have the benefit of hundreds of years of accrued wealth. However prudent financial management means its endowment has grown to £90million. If you would like more information on College finances you can read the College accounts and annual reports.
By supporting any of the funds in College through a donation you are helping us to transform lives and educate the next generation of leaders in science, technology, politics and the arts. We can only continue to excel in so many fields and sustain our intellectual strength with your help. Thank you for helping us to go forward together.