September 2012

Rushbond invest in artists

Leeds-based Property Investors, Rushbond Plc, have established a scholarship to support students studying arts courses at Leeds Metropolitan University.

Rushbond will award five scholarships a year to first year undergraduate students and five scholarships to those in their final year. The scholarships will be available to qualifying students studying courses within the School of Art, Architecture and Design and who live in a Leeds postcode.

Jonathan Maud, Managing Director of Rushbond, commented: We continue to support the Arts and Educational sector here in Leeds a hot bed of real talent and opportunity. We are delighted to be working with the University to further this commitment with Leeds students.

Vicky Hayhurst, Associate Director of Commercial Marketing & Engagement at Leeds Met, added: We are delighted and very grateful that we could work with Rushbond to create scholarships which matched the vision of the company and that it is able to make such a significant contribution to students. These scholarships will make a huge difference to hard working and talented students by helping them cover the costs of living and studying at university.

The generosity of over 900 alumni and friends of the University means that Leeds Met can provide 180,000 worth of bursaries for students from low-

income families over the next five years. Scholarships and bursaries at Leeds Metropolitan support students in a wide range of academic areas and some of them are specifically targeted at students from the Leeds area or at athletes who have the potential to represent Great Britain.

Earlier this year, the Shamirah Grant Memorial Bursary was launched at the University in memory of the nine-year-old Yorkshire schoolgirl. The Bursary will award at least 2000 a year to nominated first year arts students from disadvantaged backgrounds and who attended secondary school within the regions LS7 and LS8 postcode districts.

The Wilf Paish Scholarship Fund was established to support talented athletes from disadvantaged backgrounds and help them realise their full potential. The first recipients of the scheme were announced as Stephen Potter and Robbie Hill, who are both studying for a Masters degree in Sport Coaching.

Ends

For further details please contact Carrie Braithwaite in the Communications team at Leeds Met on 0113 812 3022 or email c.braithwaite@leedsmet.ac.uk

Notes for editors: Leeds Metropolitan University has over 27,000 students and around 3,000 staff. The Vice Chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University is Professor Susan Price and the Chair of the Board is Lord Woolmer of Leeds. Leeds Metropolitans four faculties are: Arts, Environment and Technology, Business & Law, Health and Social Sciences, and Carnegie. Leeds Metropolitans heritage can be traced back to the founding of the Mechanics Institute in Leeds in 1824.

The Destination of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE) showed that the proportion of Leeds Metropolitan 2010/11 graduates in work, further study or both six months after leaving university was 91.87%.

Libraries and Learning Innovation at Leeds Metropolitan was awarded the CSE standard for the tenth year running in 2012. In 2012, Leeds Metropolitan was awarded a First in the People & Planet Green League, a league table of environmentally friendly universities, for the sixth consecutive year.