College launches Crisis Scholarship Scheme

Following the success of its Ukrainian Student Support Fund, which provided financial assistance to three successive students from Ukraine through graduate studentships, Jesus College is delighted to launch a new Crisis Scholarship Scheme.

 

We are committed to providing support to any member of College who needs it, and would like to create more opportunities for students impacted by global emergencies to join Jesus, and benefit from being a part of our welcoming and supportive academic community. This new graduate scholarship scheme is similar to the previous Junior Members Scholarship, and is designed to provide Jesus with a more sustainable and agile funding framework, enabling us to respond effectively to global crisis situations, and provide vital financial support and a collegiate home to qualifying students.

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Jesus College will continue to partner with the University of Oxford on this pilot scholarship scheme. It will be open to those who hold an offer of a place on a one-year full-time or 2-year part-time postgraduate taught degree for 2025/26 entry, and have been displaced by the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank.

Each scholarship under the Crisis Scholarship Scheme will cover all course fees and provide a grant for living costs, as well as additional support towards arrival costs. All Crisis Scholarship students will also be guaranteed accommodation in College Mentorship, and support in preparing your graduate course application for study at Oxford is available to those eligible for this scheme through the Oxford Sanctuary Community. Any applicants who would like to receive further information on this can sign up via this registration form.

Eligible candidates will be contacted by early April, and invited to apply for the scholarship by the University’s Student Fees & Funding team. Full details of the Scholarship eligibility criteria and application process can be found on the University’s Palestine Crisis Scholarship Scheme webpage.

Support for a Crisis Scholarship starts at £21,000 per student. We are hoping to raise this amount for a new graduate studentship for 2025 entry. Any extra funds raised will be used to support future Crisis Scholars.

If you would like to make a gift to the Jesus College Crisis Scholarship Scheme, please click here.

*Please note this page was updated on 27/9/2024. 

Jesus College launches Ukrainian Student Support Fund

Jesus College, in partnership with the University of Oxford’s initiative to support students affected by the on-going war in the Ukraine, has opened a dedicated Ukrainian Student Support Fund for eligible graduates. The new graduate scholarship scheme will offer support specifically to Ukrainian refugees, and is set to launch for the 2022-23 academic year.

Dr Alexandra Lumbers, Academic Director, says “Due to the urgency of the crisis, our goal is to raise as much support as possible by September 2022 to increase our chances of supporting a student this year. Depending on the total amount raised, the College wishes to offer places for a one-year full-time cross-divisional PGT course in any subject and will ring-fence this provision for the availability of a suitable candidate.”

The studentships will include free accommodation and meals within a college, a living stipend, and course fees. Up to 20 scholarships will be awarded across participating Oxford colleges to graduates who are ordinarily resident in Ukraine, for admission onto a postgraduate taught course (Masters). Applicants will have the opportunity to apply for full-time, one-year courses in a broad range of subjects. Scholars will receive a package of financial and welfare assistance from both the University and the participating colleges throughout their time at Oxford.

Recruitment of scholars will take place through a campaign run by the University throughout May 2022, involving large-scale advertising amongst Ukrainian universities, through social media and informal networks such as the communications channels of the Oxford University Ukrainian Society. Potential scholars may also come through the family reunification route, the UK Government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme, or other routes. The Oxford Refugee Studies Centre will act as a hub for the scholars, offering access to a programme of seminars and events, and mentorship.

The Ukrainian Student Support Fund is part of Jesus’ wider commitment to access and outreach. We firmly believe that a university education at Oxford should be open to anyone with the academic ability and potential to benefit from it. The support we raise for these initiatives is life-changing for the student, and essential to our mission as a welcoming and inclusive College.

Current students are keen to help, and both the JCR and MCR have already pledged their support with a battels donation to the Fund starting from this term. The Staff and Fellows of Jesus have also been asked to contribute to the appeal, and it is hoped that many alumni and friends will join in this collective College effort.

To donate to the Ukrainian Student Support Fund, click here to make a gift online, or post a cheque to: The Development Office, Jesus College Oxford, Turl Street, Oxford, OX1 3DW. For further information email development@jesus.ox.ac.uk.

 

University of Oxford: Supporting Ukrainian students and academics

The College is also collaborating with the University and other Oxford colleges to provide welfare support to current students who have been impacted by the conflict in Ukraine, as well as providing financial support where necessary. Further support is being offered for those applicants from Ukraine who are due to commence their course in Oxford in October, and whose education or financial situation has been affected.

The University continues to support the work of the Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA). CARA’s Fellowship Programme helps academics at immediate risk around the world to escape to a place of safety where they can continue their work, including a growing number from Ukraine. The University is also an applicant to the Researchers at Risk Fellowships Programme, being delivered by the UK National Academies and in partnership with CARA, which will support researchers at risk to continue their research in the UK for up to two years.

 

 

Professor Ben Goldacre elected to Jesus College Fellowship

We are delighted to announce the election of Professor Ben Goldacre MBE to Jesus College as the first Bennett Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine. The affiliation of this new Statutory Chair to the College is part of an endowment made possible thanks to the generosity of philanthropist Peter Bennett and his wife Desiree. Peter, a Cambridge graduate (Churchill College, 1975), is the founding benefactor of  The Peter Bennett Foundation, which works to support academic endeavours to effect systemic change in the global community.

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Professor Ben Goldacre MBE, Director of the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford.

 

In 2021, the Foundation announced the creation of the new Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford. The Institute, based at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, to bring together academics from a range of disciplines, including clinicians, software engineers, policy experts and statisticians, to develop and implement new methods and tools to make data and evidence more impactful in the world, improving the lives of patients and citizens, enhancing and expanding the work that has been undertaken to date by the DataLab.

Professor Goldacre, who is Director of the Bennett Institute, will provide academic leadership in the field of data science, helping to unite and focus efforts in this rapidly-changing field across University departments and divisions. The endowment, funded by the Bennetts in collaboration with Jesus College, also enables a series of four consecutive Junior Research Fellowships (across academic disciplines) to complement and support his work to further research in to the better use of data, evidence and digital tools in healthcare and policy, and optimise the impact of interventions to achieve improved outcomes.

Professor Goldacre is a doctor, academic, best-selling author, broadcaster and campaigner. He trained in medicine at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and University College London, in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital, and in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His academic and policy work is in informatics, epidemiology and evidence-based medicine, where he works on various problems including variation in care, better uses of routinely collected electronic health data, evidence-based social policy, access to clinical trial data, efficient trial design, and retracted papers.

In April 2022, he published an independent report – Better, broader, safer: using health data for research and analysis – on how the efficient and safe use of health data in the NHS for research and analysis can benefit patients and the healthcare sector. The findings of the report have helped to shape the Government’s new Health and Social Care Data Strategy, to be published later this year, which will set out a vision to make better use of data to save lives.

Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt FRS FREng FBCS, Jesus College Principal, said, “We are delighted to welcome Ben to the Jesus College Fellowship, and excited for the innovative interdisciplinary research opportunities that this important strategic collaboration between the College and University will create. Ben is an exceptional academic researcher and leader in the field of data science. His ongoing contribution to research and public policy in this area is key to maximising the potential of large health datasets to benefit people both in the UK and globally. We are extremely grateful to Peter and Desiree Bennett for the endowment that has made this possible, and for the creation of the Bennett Junior Research Fellowship to support Ben’s work and enhance our interdisciplinary research in applied data science.”

For more information on Professor Goldacre’s role, go to https://www.bennett.ox.ac.uk/about-us/ben-goldacre/