The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust no longer funds this scheme so the College is reliant on philanthropic support from alumni and friends to ensure that this vital additional support can continue.

• 116 undergraduate students received a means-tested Cambridge Bursary in 2024-25.
• 50 of these students qualified for the maximum £3,500 per year as their annual family income is below £25,000.
• The College also awards these students a Winston Churchill Top-Up Bursary of £1,000-£2,000 because they are in the greatest financial need.
• Since 2020, the number of Home undergraduate students who qualify for a Winston Churchill Top-Up Bursary has more than tripled.

Churchill is proud of its tradition of having 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. In short, the additional sum takes considerable pressure off these students and gives them choices, academic and otherwise, such as unpaid summer internships.

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 additional financial support they are receiving.