A generous £1.5m gift from British businessman and University of Manchester alumnus Simon Sadler has enabled the University to launch a new bursary for students leaving care.
Simon grew up in Blackpool, and was the first in his family to attend University. He is currently Chief Investment Officer of Segantii Capital Management, which he founded in 2007.
He is also the owner and chairman of his hometown football club, having purchased a 96% stake in Blackpool FC in 2019. The town also contains eight of England’s ten most deprived wards, and its share of children in local authority care is the highest in the country.
Over the next three years, the Sadler Bursary will provide an annual grant of £10,000 for 36 undergraduate care-leaver students, with particular priority being given to students from the North West of England – including Blackpool.
The bursary will offer students security for the duration of their degree, providing them with support to secure accommodation and enabling them to focus on their studies without any financial stresses. The £1.5m gift also includes new support for students from low-income households.
There is a ‘care ceiling’ which impedes those with a challenging start in life. Sadly, an 18-year-old care leaver is more likely to end up in prison than attend university – they make up a quarter of the homeless population, and are far less likely to be in education, employment or training than their peers.
Just 14% of care leavers progress to higher education in the UK, in contrast to 47% of students from state-funded schools – and just 90 young people who had spent more than a year in care before the age of 19 entered the UK’s top 32 Universities in 2021-22.
For those who do manage to reach university, care leaver students can face significant money worries as they lack family financial support – the estimated annual cost of living for a student is £14,542. They can also face homelessness during breaks outside term-time, and difficulties accessing private student rental accommodation due to a lack of people able to act as a guarantor.
“It is a true privilege to have these new bursaries named after me, which will give a helping hand to young people who have had particularly complicated starts to their lives,” said Simon. “I also hope it inspires young people who may not have previously considered attending University to follow their dreams.”
Simon and his wife Gillian are also supporting Cancer Research UK’s More Research, Less Cancer campaign with a gift to the CRUK National Cancer Biomarker Centre in Manchester. The Biomarker Centre is housed in the CRUK Manchester Institute, a partnership between The University of Manchester, CRUK and the Christie NHS Foundation Trust.
“I would personally like to thank Simon for this generous, life-changing programme of support for students leaving care, which will play a pivotal role in our mission to create a more inclusive and accessible academic environment,” said Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester. “We are committed to ensuring that students from all backgrounds are able to fulfil their potential and succeed here at our University, and this new bursary is another tool in our arsenal to enable that to happen.”
