A new initiative at St Antony's to support students from the Global South.

At the very end of the 2022 admissions round, we discovered that 16 students who had undertaken their first degrees at a university in a Development Assistance Country (DAC), as defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, had been offered places on one-year (MSc) Master’s courses at the College. They were, however, unable to take up those places due to a lack of funding.

A door that those students had, against the odds, opened by their own merit, had been closed - for purely financial reasons - before they could go through it.

We know that this is not the first year that this has happened and we know that it also applies to students doing two-year (MPhil) and even doctoral (DPhil) programmes, but it is the first time we have actively collected data to show the scale of the problem. This is thanks to an initiative led by three previous student GCR executives. They spotlighted the need for the College to tackle this issue if it was genuinely going to state that it takes the best students from across the world, regardless of their financial situation.

St Antony’s DAC Scholarship

We are delighted that the Governing Body has made it a priority for the College to raise money for those students who did their undergraduate degree in a DAC country. To show its commitment to the Scholarship, it has ring-fenced the income from a recently received unrestricted endowment of £1.3 million to fund students on the scheme for at least the next ten years.

We are proud to announce that it was able to use those funds to offer its first scholarship to Samira Mohammed Ibn Moro, a student from Ghana who will study for an MSc in African Studies. 

The DAC scholarship is the brightest light at the beginning of my Oxford journey. Being the first-ever recipient is overwhelming and inspiring at the same time. I am grateful to the sponsors of the scholarship and St. Antony’s College for such a life-altering opportunity. - Samira Ibn Moro

We want the DAC Scholarship to be available to all graduate students (MSc, MPhil, or DPhil) who have the ambition to apply to Oxford and St Antony’s and the extraordinary talent to get accepted at a time when there are over six eligible applicants for each graduate place. We appeal to the St Antony’s community, many of whom were supported in their own studies by others, to help guarantee that such students are able to take up the opportunities that they have earned.

Our community will be the better for it. - GCR Committee

The DAC Scholarship is the number one funding priority of St Antony’s. Our goal is that the scholarship will cover Living Costs (£21,060 for 12 months in 2022/23 as calculated by the University) and Fees up to a value of £30,330 (set by Departments and Faculties) with a maximum value of £51,395. It will be available for any degree or course (except for the MBA and MPP) offered at St Antony’s. Our ambition is to raise £3 million within three years and create a permanent endowment from which the DAC scholarship will be offered.

The 90s DAC Scholarship

In 2023, we are inviting the 90s generation of Antonians to leave a lasting impact on the College and future students from the Global South by creating a collectively-endowed scholarship. 

The target is to raise £1 million for the endowment which will allow the College to offer a DAC Scholarship in perpetuity covering all academic fees, accommodation and other living costs.

Read more about the 90s DAC Scholarship fund.

Make a gift

Gifts can be made through the University of Oxford website.

Your gift can often be enhanced by a variety of tax breaks for charitable action.

Our donors from Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland, can make tax-efficient donations.  For more information, please follow this link. 

St Antony's College is a registered charity (number 1141293).

Students from the global south are underrepresented at Oxford due to the high costs of graduate education. St Antony’s is committed to enabling students to fulfil their academic potential, regardless of background or financial concerns.

St Antony's College and the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID) are launching an initiative to raise funds for a joint scholarship, which we aspire to offer from 2023-24 onwards. The Angelines Scholarship will be open to students who apply for any degree offered by ODID with a preference for those from Latin America and whose college of choice is St Antony’s.

The initiative for this scholarship came from Professor Valpy FitzGerald who has been a central figure in academic life at both St Antony's and ODID since 1992. The scholarship will be named after his wife Angelines, who has been struggling with Alzheimer’s Disease. 

Latin America is the focus of Professor FitzGerald's academic interests and both St Antony's and ODID currently host a relatively small number of Latin American students which both institutions would really like to see grow. If there are no suitable candidates from Latin America in a particular year, then applicants from other parts of the global south will be considered.

Training a new generation of students in development studies at ODID and St Antony´s College will be a fitting tribute to Angelines’ own roots in Andalucía, her training as a social historian, her lived experience of Mexico and Nicaragua, and her kindness to previous generations of postgraduates in Cambridge, The Hague and Oxford. 

- Professor Valpy Fitzgerald

The ambition is that the scholarship covers the academic fee of £30,300. The good news is that £12,500 has already been secured on an annual basis with grateful thanks to Professor FitzGerald, which ODID will match, making it £25,000. We hope that the community of former ODID/St Antony’s students will help cover the remaining costs of the fees, meaning that we aspire to raise every year £5,300. If we top this amount, the added funds will be used to help pay for the living costs of the student.

We aim to offer the scholarship annually and would therefore particularly appreciate recurring gifts which would allow us to plan ahead. But, of course, we would be grateul for any support, whether this is a single or recurring donation. 

The Angelines Scholarship will not be possible without the support of the worldwide Antonian community. If you would like to discuss the scholarship in more detail or have a question about how to make a gift, please get in touch with Wouter te Kloeze, Development Director at St Antony’s. 

Donate to The Angelines Scholarship

The St Antony's Boat Club Annual Fund will support the ongoing operational costs of SABC and includes boat maintenance and storage fees, coaches and training expenses, and saving for boat purchases once every five years. 

The Boat Club's Annual Fund will be a flexible drawdown fund to support the ongoing operational costs of  SABC in collaboration with the College. In addition, to set yearly expenses, capital will also be devoted yearly into a 'boat and equipment account' to support fundraising once every 4-5 years for new vessels. Finally, the fund includes a mandate to guide the exploration of other strategic priorities for SABC. Governance of the fund is overseen by a management team of current and previous SABC rowers and College representatives, including the Senior Member and Development Director, which meets once a term. 

Professor Roger Goodman encourages donations to the fund:

For more than 40 years, the St Antony’s Boat Club has been an integral part of student life at the College. With its growth in recent years and the intense use of the available boats, it is crucial that SABC has funding in place to cover some ongoing operational costs and to save for boat purchases at least once every five years. It is to this end that the Boat Club is setting up a specific SABC Fund which will be managed by its executive team, two former rowers and the College. As Warden of St Antony’s, I was delighted to be asked to be the Boat Club’s Senior Member, and I very much hope that the community of Old Antonian Rowers will support the SABC Fund. By doing so, you will help ensure that current and future generations of students can continue to row in the best possible equipment, together with the best coaches and training facilities. 

Gifts can be made through the website of the University of Oxford.

A variety of tax breaks for charitable action can often enhance your gift. St Antony's College is a registered charity (number 1141293).

Our donors from Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland, can make tax-efficient donations.  For more information, please follow this link.