A FUNDRAISING campaign by the University of Reading to support student bursaries and a new outdoor learning space is taking place next week.
In its centenary year, the university is holding its second annual Giving Day, raising money for projects that will leave a lasting legacy.
The 36-hour fundraising drive will support two new centenary funds.
The first is the Beyond 100 Bursary aims to help to ease the burden of living costs so students can focus on fully experiencing university life rather than worrying about their finances.
The other is the Outdoor Learning Garden, a new teaching and research space on Whiteknights campus dedicated to sustainability and environmental learning.
Donors can also choose to contribute to the University’s Where the Need is Greatest fund, which supports emerging student priorities including hardship relief, wellbeing and access to learning resources, ensuring support is directed where it is most needed.
The Beyond 100 Bursary provides a £1,500 contribution to living costs for undergraduate, Master’s and foundation-level students, helping to ensure that ability and ambition, not circumstance, determine who can succeed at university.
Fundraising during the centenary year is focused on enabling 100 bursaries to be awarded.
Situated within the restored historic walls of the Harris Garden on Whiteknights campus, the Outdoor Learning Garden is a new teaching and research space supporting learning connected to climate change, biodiversity, water systems, food production and environmental sustainability.
As well as serving students across multiple disciplines, it will be a learning resource for local schools and community groups, featuring a wildlife pond, covered teaching shelter, accessible facilities and experimental plots.
To maximise this year’s Giving Day, the University has set an early bird target: if 25 donations are received before the campaign opens, an additional £2,000 will be unlocked.
Further matched donation challenges will run throughout the campaign.
Last year’s inaugural Giving Day raised more than £36,000 from 173 donors across 21 countries.
Those gifts have already helped to expand the Neurobears programme for children and families run by the University’s Centre for Autism, as well as offering sessions free of charge.
They have also funded two Climate Stripes Scholarships for international meteorology students and enabled six students to complete paid internships with local charities and small businesses.
The funding has also enabled the Henley Enterprise Lab to put on a free Summer Startup Boot Camp for entrepreneurs from the University and local community.
The boot camp will take place in June, with registrations open now.
Professor Robert Van de Noort, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading, said: “Giving opens doors. It changes lives. It keeps world-class research moving forward in ways that benefit us all. And it creates new partnerships, between donors and the people whose lives and work are transformed by their generosity.
“This Giving Day, as we mark one hundred years since our Royal Charter, we are reminded that every gift, of any size, starts a new page in our continuing story.”
