Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU)
The ACU is offering 17 grants of up to GBP 2,000 each for undergraduate students from ACU member universities in the UK to attend summer schools overseas during summer 2020.
The summer schools
The grants are tenable at summer schools at ACU member universities overseas. Applicants will be asked to identify a first and second choice of summer school on the application form. The host institutions include universities in Canada, India, South Africa and a number of other countries. The full list of hosts is available on the ACU website.
Safeguarding notice
The list of host universities students can apply for grants to study at includes The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), whose Summer School begins at the end of June. The ACU will be reviewing travel advice to students who have been awarded a Global Grant by the end of April, to consider the security situation in Hong Kong and the progression of the coronavirus outbreak at that time. If necessary, students will have the option to register for a summer school in another country. UK universities are free to advise their students to not select CUHK when they submit a grant application.
Eligibility criteria
Grants are available to students who meet both of the following criteria:
- Registered as a current undergraduate student
- A UK citizen, or with UK refugee status
In addition, students must also meet at least one of the following criteria:
- From a family with a combined annual parental income of under GBP 25,000, or
- The first person in their family to go to university, or
- A care leaver
If the criteria above does not match with how your university measures Widening Participation, and you would like to discuss using different criteria to provide an opportunity for your students to be involved, I would be keen to hear from you. Please email globalgrants@acu.ac.uk or call 0207 380 6755 so we can discuss this before you nominate students.
How to participate
We are asking International / Global Mobility Offices to:
1) Advertise the opportunity to students and ask them to submit the application form to you. The application form can be found here and full information about the grants is available on the ACU website.
2) Conduct an internal selection process using this suggested marking criteria. Universities can either check students’ eligibility for the grants using Widening Participation data held by the institution or, if this is not possible, can ask students to self-identify.
3) Nominate up to two candidates to the ACU by Wednesday 4 March using this online form.
The ACU will then carry out the final selection process to select the 17 recipients. Successful candidates will then be required to register for one of the eligible summer schools and arrange their own travel.
I look forward to receiving your nomination for the grants. If you have any queries, please reply to this email.
Best wishes,
Terri Jacques
Senior Scholarships and Fellowships Officer