The Professor Malcolm Grant Postgraduate Scholarship

The Professor Malcolm Grant Postgraduate Scholarship was established to celebrate the exceptional contribution of the outgoing President and Provost to the UCL community in more than a decade of service. The award, established in 2013, provides £25,000 for an UCL alumnus to undertake a Master’s course at the University. The aim of the award is to enable and encourage UCL alumni who can show both leadership potential and financial need to continue on and pursue graduate study at UCL. The first recipient of the Scholarship is Laura Davies, and she embarked on her Master’s in October.

“Studying for a Masters degree was something that I thought would never be an option” reflected Laura, “but the last 6 months at UCL has been a life-changing experience. There are three main reasons for this; the course itself, the leadership opportunities and the entrepreneurial spirit encapsulated at UCL.” Laura is reading for an MSc in Technology Entrepreneurship and has found the university the perfect setting and has even enabled her to set up her own website since arriving.

Sir Malcolm Grant was President and Provost of UCL from 2003 until September 2013, and was Knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2013 for services to higher education. An addition to an academic career at Southampton University and Cambridge University, as well as UCL, Professor Grant is also a barrister and environmental lawyer along with responsibilities such as Chairman of NHS England and a board member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

The award will just be a single element of his legacy at UCL and is already changing the lives of graduate students. Laura concludes that “more than anything, my experience has given me the confidence to pursue my ambitions to make a difference to the world through technology. My time at UCL has, so far, been the best possible springboard for this. I am looking forward to what I can achieve in the future!” UCL will also look forward to a new scholar beginning the Master’s in the 2014/15 academic year.

More information on the Professor Malcolm Grant Scholarship is available on our website.