A BRITISH charitable foundation has launched a major higher education programme to support underprivileged Muslim students through top universities.
The COSARAF Charitable Foundation aims to provide up to 24 graduate and undergraduate scholarships at four major UK universities - St Anne’s College, Oxford; any Cambridge college (administered by Downing College); The University of Warwick; and Cambridge Muslim College.
Valued at £210,000 in its first three years, the award is part of a wider COSARAF package of support for poorer students and it open to UK Muslim students who face financial hardship. Eligible candidates will ideally be the first in their family to attend university.
“One of our core objectives is to enable young people to realise their potential and this ground-breaking programme seeks to remove barriers to Muslim applicants to leading universities, increasing their participation and helping them to make a difference within their communities," said Haroon Sheikh, chairman of the COSARAF Charitable Foundation.
However, the scholarship goes a lot further than merely boosting personal outcomes, said Sheikh.
He added: "The awards will provide long-term support to develop leadership within UK Muslim communities, fostering long-term integration and cohesion. We are pioneering this comprehensive support programme for Muslim youngsters who, traditionally, must contend with a whole host of barriers to higher education on top of the already stiff competition for all applicants.
"By doing so, we also intend to highlight the broader issue of uneven access. This problem is stubbornly persistent even as we near the third decade of the 21st century and must be resolved if we are ever to have an equitable society, where people’s progress hinges solely on their abilities.”
Each deserving student will be awarded up to £10,000 per year towards the cost of their tuition fees and living expenses. They will also have access to a personal mentor and a tailored leadership support programme, paid summer internship at a leading charity and ongoing support from COSARAF.
Launching the award at an event at St Anne's College on April 26, Dr Rosena Allin-Khan MP, Labour MP for Tooting said every child should be provided with an opportunity to choose their future.
“It is vitally important that young people from minority backgrounds have every opportunity available to them. A person’s background, race, gender, religion or class should never factor into the opportunities available. It is for this reason that I am proud to launch the Sheikh Family Scholarship," Allin-Khan.
Tom Ilube CBE, St Anne's Advisory Fellow, added: “Having founded the African Gifted Foundation, which works across the continent with exceptionally bright young women, I know well the enormous transformational changes that education brings to lives. It is vital that everyone has access to it - up to and including higher levels. I am thrilled to get behind this fantastic scholarship project and delighted that students coming to St Anne's, Oxford, where diversity is core to our mission, will benefit from it."
