Giving at Warwick

For those of you who haven’t been involved in watching any of the Varsity challenge matches with Coventry University, you missed a series of treats! Hugely competitive matches, wonderful atmospheres. This year the event was topped off by the rugby match, held at the Ricoh. We won… with a score in last minute… It was great to witness some of the #TeamWarwick spirit that’s led us to take our 26^th consecutive win in Varsity.

I’m always delighted to see how many of our students are involved in different activities on campus, making the most of their time here outside of their studies. Last week I met with the student media for a question and answer session, and I know that the TEDx Warwick event held in the Butterworth Hall this weekend was a great success.

One evening last week I visited our student calling team, a group of dedicated students who build relationships with our alumni – on that night alone the students raised over £2,500 and it was wonderful to see them in action, having meaningful conversations with those who studied here before them.

Warwick has a history of giving and philanthropy, with our founding partners raising £4m in 1965, the equivalent of £30m today. In recent years, we’ve benefitted from the generosity of over 12,000 donors, and have raised more than £73million in our latest campaign, 50Forward. I’m always touched by the generosity of our benefactors and donors, and heartened to see the direct positive impact their donations have on our community. I want to thank everyone, staff, students and donors, who have made this fantastic result happen.

But our fundraising and philanthropy is not just UK-based, it also has global reach. Later this week I fly to Singapore and Jakarta, to meet with a number of alumni and donors. Whilst in Singapore, I’ll be meeting with the Trustees of the Friends of Warwick in Singapore scholarship scheme. These new scholarships are funded through the generosity of Warwick alumni in Singapore in the Friends of the University of Warwick in Singapore Trust to enable low income Singaporeans to come to Warwick. These will be our first international widening participation scholarships - something I am very proud of.

Colleagues are working hard to fight cancer: we're coming up with better ways to diagnose and treat various types of cancers, and we're also finding ways to improve patient care. March 9 is #CoolCapSelfie day, and as a community we’ll be celebrating the work of Professor Annie Young, whose research into ‘cool caps’ is aiming to help patients keep their hair during chemotherapy. Find out how you can share a photo of your favourite cap, hat or headwear in honour of all those facing this battle every day.

Looking ahead, there will be some other people writing for this blog, not just me - I hope for this to become a place for the whole Executive Office team, and other community members too, to share their views.

Execblog Resource : 08 Mar 2016 14:58 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem