University scheme aiming to "build a pipeline for Black students at Surrey"
Scholarships are being offered to improve access and participation for Black British Students
The University Of Surrey is running a programme which is intended to improve access and participation for Black British Students in postgraduate research.
The Surrey Black Scholars Programme will provide fully funded scholarships, mentoring, teaching qualifications, tailored career advice and placement opportunities. Three and a half year-long scholarships are being offered.
The programme is being funded by Surrey, the Office for Students and Research England.
Doctor Emily Williams is the Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the University. She highlighted that improvement in representation in the University's postgraduate research was necessary.
"We have a fantastic diversity of our undergraduate student population and postgraduate taught population, but far less so in our postgraduate research, so our doctoral programmes.
"So this was about trying to improve the representation, particularly of Black British Students, who are our most underrepresented group."
"They will be teaching and leading our research in the years to come."
Dr Williams also said "we are developing a program of initiatives around the students built on improving their experiences."
She also explained what she would like to see as a result of the programme.
"The dream really is that our Black British population in postgraduate research does mirror that of our undergrad population. We have a really thriving black postgrad research student population who have a really positive experience.
"We can measure that according to our student surveys. at the moment we are seeing that their experiences are slightly different from the white students and we want to see that being matched.
"And then the dream is that those postgrad researchers will go on to be our Black British academics of the future... they will be teaching and leading our research in the years to come."
The deadline for applications for the programme is the 14th March.