The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Dons chief to aid students
Education: Cormack donating £100,000 to set up RGU scholarship fund
The chairman of Aberdeen FC has pledged £100,000 to help students from underrepresented backgrounds study at university.
Dave Cormack’s donation will financially support 10 full-time undergraduates at the city’s Robert Gordon University over the next two years.
The scholarship will be awarded to those who have accepted a place at RGU and can show “financial need, academic merit, motivation and ambition”.
In addition, the students will all receive pastoral care from the university’s widening access team.
Mr Cormack set up his charity, the Cormack Family Foundation, with his wife Fiona in 2001.
It supports organisations in Scotland, the Americas and Africa and last year donated £100,000 to Aberdeen-based charity Clan Cancer Support.
The new scholarship will provide each student with support up to the value of £2,000 each year.
Mr Cormack said: “Empowering young people through education is one of the pillars of the Cormack Family Foundation.
“We are thrilled to be able to establish a programme of access scholarships at Robert Gordon University which will support 10 students from diverse backgrounds, who may not otherwise have had this opportunity, through a four-year degree course. As Aberdonians, with our roots firmly in the north-east, Fiona and I are fortunate to be in a position to support the next generation of talent and skills and to partner with a modern, forwardthinking university which forms a major part of the region’s rich and diverse learning and teaching landscape.”
RGU principal Professor John Harper said: “At the heart of the RGU strategy is our commitment to extending the reach and widening access to our learning portfolio, and this extremely generous donation from The Cormack Family Foundation will really support us to do so.
“For many students, receiving a scholarship is a life-transforming situation, which can support them to thrive in their studies and careers, and we are indebted to Dave and his family for making this happen.”