University announces Dr Ateh Jewel Education Foundation Award and scholarships funded by The British Academy, which are available to undergraduate and post-doctoral researchers respectively. 

The scholarships funded by The British Academy have enabled four talented overseas postdoctoral students to join Oxford University. The awards have been allocated under the Newton International Fellowships Scheme, which contributes to the establishment of new international research links and is funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Each Newton International Fellowship is worth up to £119,250, including relocation costs, and allows early career researchers from any country overseas to work at a UK institution of their choice. 

The 2022 award holders are Dr Aexandre Cerveux, Dr Andy Hilkens, Dr Roman Kuhn, and Dr Ning Zhang, who will be researching a range of topics. These include the function of music in the acquisition of knowledge, the Communist Movement in Burma, and the study of Syro-Armenian polemics in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Professor Dan Grimley, the University’s Head of Humanities said: “I am delighted that such talented early career researchers will be joining the University under the Newton International Fellowships scheme, and I look forward to the results of their collaborations with colleagues across our Humanities faculties.” 

This follows the announcement of the Dr Ateh Jewel Education Foundation Award, which will be available to three first-degree UK-resident undergraduate offer holders on any course of study who are of Black African, Black Caribbean, or mixed heritage. One-off payments will be made to the recipients at the beginning of Michaelmas term of their first year. The award will launch in Michaelmas 2022. 

Dr Ateh Jewel, an award-winning journalist and diversity advocate, established the award in order to “offer targeted support to gifted students from low income families” and ensure that “bright and exceptional students can achieve their very best without the financial worries which may otherwise shift their focus.”

The Dr Ateh Jewel Education Foundation is working with the University of Oxford before expanding the programme to encompass other universities. Dr Jewel said: “I created the Dr Ateh Jewel Education Foundation because I believe the way to create true racial equality is to flood industry and culture with diversity and redefine what the default setting of power looks like … The days of Dickensian alms giving is over, this is about shouting and underlining that Oxford and seats of power are spaces for Black and mixed heritage students who in the past may have felt this was an institution not for them.”

Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education, Professor Martin Williams, has voiced his support for the award, saying: “Finance should not be a barrier to opportunity or education, and I hope this announcement of the Dr Ateh Jewel Education Foundation Award reminds Black students across the country that there are opportunities for them at the University.”

The 2023 round of Newton International Fellowships is open to applicants until 16 March 2022, and information about this can be found here.