This year, our telephone campaign raises funds for student needs, with a focus on the Alumni Fund, Bridging Programme, mental health and the Margaret Andrew Bursary. Each is of paramount importance and gifts made in the September appeal will go directly towards supporting our students: 

The Alumni Fund

• The College awards more than £800,000 a year to its students, with 92 students receiving a bursary. The Alumni Fund provides six annual bursaries, and any gift helps to alleviate the cost faced by students. As the average undergraduate student leaves university, whether Cambridge or elsewhere, with student loan debt totaling over £60,000, financial support is vitally important to our students.  

  The Bridging Programme

• Building on the Widening Participation success of the Bridging Course is the extension into the endowed Bridging Programme, with a three-week residential Bridging Course in September at its core and an expansion of undergraduate numbers by 10%. The aim of the Bridging Programme is to expand and deepen the support offered to students. Additional funding will provide continued mentorship, networking and skills development taking place during undergraduate study and beyond, to include those entering employment or continuing postgraduate study.

  Wellbeing at Corpus

• We continue to expand our wellbeing provisions at Corpus, to help meet the pressures facing students. There is mounting research evidence that a strong social network and sense of belonging are key for student wellbeing. In turn, good student wellbeing has also been shown to be vital for academic success at university.

• The creation of a ‘Pelican Officer’ post will provide a programme of activities for all Corpus students that promotes participation and wellbeing through structured support in extra- and co-curricular activities throughout the academic year. This will result in improved health and wellbeing throughout the College and ensure a consistent and professional approach. The Pelican Officer role is to be part-funded by the University and we must find a further £40,000 to recruit for the post.

  The Margaret Andrew Bursary

• Margaret Andrew bequeathed her land which, together with other legacies, lead to the foundation of Corpus. We want to honour this legacy by establishing the Margaret Andrew Bursary, 675 years after Margaret's bequest. The bursary will be awarded to a female student in need of support, with a value of up to £3,500 a year. An endowment of £150,000 would provide a robust, permanent source of income for the bursary. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, over £105,000 has been donated as of August 2024. 

How you can help: Thank you so much to everyone who has supported the College to date. Donations of any size help our diverse body of students through challenges they face. Whether you’ll have the chance to speak to a current Corpuscle on this occasion or not, hopefully you will consider making a gift. To support the College with a donation ahead of the telephone campaign, please visit our ‘Make a donation’ page. Alternatively, if you believe the contact details we have on file for you might not be correct, you can update your details.