Minister wants ‘elite’ Fulbright programme to help minorities
THE Fulbright Commission must do more to attract students from ethnic minorities and disadvantaged backgrounds, says the universities minister.
Sam Gyimah said the Fulbright scholarship, which pays for British students to enrol at top US institutions such as Harvard or Yale and for Americans to study in the UK, has previously been seen as an “elite programme”.
But he said the scholarships should not be “limited to the privileged and well-off in society”, but “open to all and particularly disadvantaged students”.
At a 70th anniversary celebration for the Commission at the House of Commons, Mr Gyimah announced that Government funding for the Fulbright programme will rise by £400,000 to £1million for next year. He said the extra money should be used to enable students from deprived backgrounds to “benefit from what has historically been perceived as an elite programme”.
His intervention comes as British universities face growing pressure to boost diversity in their intakes, with regulators warning that those who miss new “tougher” targets could be fined or even de-registered.
The number of privately educated British pupils going to American universities has risen by a fifth in three years, as the wealthiest families seek to give their children an advantage.
But Mr Gyimah said that studying in the US should be often to all. He added: “We have an education system where, for the super-rich, the world is their playground.
“There are huge advantages that come from that exposure. Allowing disadvantaged, bright and able students to have that sort of exposure can only be a good thing for our country.”