With students facing a new era of tuition costs universities across the UK are designing support packages to make higher education affordable to students from the widest range of backgrounds.
Now one university has launched a unique initiative that is likely to spark keen competition among top applicants. Cardiff University is supplementing its packages of bursaries and scholarships for students with one “Ultimate Scholarship” – the offer of free tuition for life.
The competition, which is open to any UK or EU student who has or is planning to apply to study at Cardiff in 2012, will involve a series of academically challenging tasks designed to identify the most exceptional student. The University will be looking for a student with outstanding passion, commitment and intelligence, reflecting its reputation as one of the UK’s leading academic institutions.
With the introduction of higher fees for university tuition this year, the Ultimate Scholarship is worth much, much more than the value of the winner’s undergraduate degree, currently £27,000 for a three year course. With the addition of a MBA, a PhD and Continuing Professional Development courses the value soars to in excess of £50,000.
The launch of the Ultimate Scholarship is designed to generate additional excitement around Cardiff University’s 2012 undergraduate recruitment campaign “Thrive”, which focuses on engaging students in new ways via digital and social media. The Ultimate Scholarship competition will be driven from the Thrive microsite, with clues to the first round of challenges appearing here.
Louise Casella, Director of Strategic Development at Cardiff University, commented: “Cardiff University offers a unique student experience, combining leading academic excellence, career opportunities and a fun and affordable lifestyle. The University offers a range of bursaries and scholarships and we see the Ultimate Scholarship as an extension of this. The challenge provides a fantastic opportunity to an exceptional student who can demonstrate the qualities which we seek in our applicants and which we nurture in our students. At the same time this initiative will reinforce our position as one of the most sought after universities amongst some of the most talented students in the UK.”
be in with a chance of winning students must undertake a series of tough challenges, which will increase in difficulty, between now and spring 2012. The first series will take place online, while the final will bring the best students to Cardiff University for a live head-to-head challenge. All finalists will also earn a scholarship towards their undergraduate tuition fees.
Clues to where students can find the first challenge will appear on the Cardiff University Thrive website mid-December. Students can register now to ensure they don’t miss out at www.cardiff.ac.uk/thrive
