By Jasmine Wing | @jasminenatashaw
Well known rapper from South London, Stormzy announced this morning at his old school Harris Academy in South Norwood, that he will be funding two black British students to go to the University of Cambridge.
He has named the scheme The Stormzy Scholarship and it will pay for tuition fees and provide a maintenance grant for up to four years of an undergraduate course.
Last year the grime star donated £9,000 to an Oxford student’s crowdfunding for her to go to Harvard in the US. Fiona Asiedu, an Oxford University student, had aimed to raise £12,000 in four weeks to be able to pay her tuition fees and other costs. But it took less than 24 hours for her to reach her goal – thanks mostly to Stormzy’s donation.
A freedom of information request by the Financial Times showed some Cambridge colleges admitted no black British students between 2012 and 2016.
A statement to the newspaper from the university read: “More needs to be done to prepare high-achieving black students for applications to Cambridge and Oxford, which is why we have significantly increased the funding we contribute to programmes like Target Oxbridge.”
Target Oxbridge provides one-to-one training for black students to improve their chances of being admitted to the universities.
To be eligible for this year’s Stormzy Scholarship, applicants must be of black ethnicity and have an offer to study at Cambridge. The application deadline is 30 August. For the 2019 entry to Cambridge, students need to apply through UCAS by 15 October. The students will be selected from a list of applicants by a panel of university staff.
Be the first to comment