Jinny and Andrew Rudd at a Sussex event

When Sussex opened its doors in the 1960s, only 4% of school leavers went to university. Sussex actively encouraged non-traditional groups of students to apply, welcoming mature students, refugees, and those from working-class backgrounds. Sussex endeavoured to create a culture where no under-represented group would be left behind.

Thanks to the generous support of alumni and friends of the University, this tradition has remained at the heart of Sussex. The Mandela Scholarship, set up in 1973, and the Article 26 Scholarship, aimed at refugees, are just two examples of scholarships – supported by alumni donations – that have changed the lives of so many students at Sussex.

More recently, a generous gift has enabled the University to endow a new scholarships programme for young people who have been in care. The ten-year scholarships programme, which will offer students an annual £5,000 scholarship for the duration of their degree, has been funded by the philanthropic Rudd Family Foundation, co-founded by long-term supporters of the University, Andrew and Jinny Rudd.

Professor Sasha Roseneil, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sussex, said: “This gift helps Sussex to build on our long-standing tradition of widening participation in higher education, so that more young people who have experienced care are able to realise their potential through a Sussex education.”

Jinny Rudd said: “Education has always been important to Andrew and our family as a way to expand opportunities and choices in life. Andrew began his university career as an undergraduate at Sussex University and, with his degree and preparation from Sussex, he went on to earn two Master’s degrees and a PhD from the University of California in Berkeley CA, opening up a career in academia as a Professor at Cornell University and then in the business world. Andrew now suffers from Alzheimer's but we know he would feel privileged that this scholarship will be made available to help support students, who have challenges in their lives, travel on their educational journeys.”

Professor Sasha Roseneil, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sussex, said: “Young people who have experienced the care system are hugely under-represented in higher education. When they do make it to university, they often struggle due to the lack of family support that other students take for granted. We want both to encourage care-experienced applicants to come to Sussex, and then to enable them to make the most of their time as students, succeeding academically and graduating with the skills and knowledge to thrive in their lives after university.”

Thank you

The University of Sussex is enormously grateful to the Rudd Family Foundation for supporting our ambitions for this group of students through the Andrew Rudd Scholarships Programme.

We would also like to thank everyone who has donated to scholarships at Sussex over the past year.  Your support has made an enormous difference to our students, providing them with options and opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach. For so many it has been life changing. Thank you.

Support us

If you would like to support a scholarship at Sussex, please email robert.yates@sussex.ac.uk.

More

The number of young people in care in the United Kingdom has risen significantly in the last decade, with this figure likely to reach 100,000 in the next few years. Currently, according to the Office for Students, only 13% of pupils who have been in care for 12 months or more entered higher education, compared to a national average of 43% across all student groups. Research shows that young people who have been in care have significantly poorer educational and life outcomes than the general population on average.