Meet some of the students awarded with academic funding
The Goldsmiths Awards reception took place in March, where we celebrated the successes and achievements of almost 250 students who have been awarded scholarships and bursaries to support their studies.
More than £1.5million was offered to students through contributions from the university, Lewisham council, Santander and collaborations with many other sponsors.
We know financial support is increasingly important for university students - find out what's on offer at Goldsmiths.
We caught up with some scholarship recipients at the award ceremony to hear what winning an award meant to them - and how it it helped their studies.
Glynn Davies
Glynn received the London Borough of Lewisham Scholarship given in memory of the victims of the New Cross Fire, and studies BA Education, Culture and Society
What does your scholarship mean to you?
Not having to worry about money means that I can really think about what I want to do and I can really explore loads of different options that maybe might not have been viable for me before. I feel more confident about what I can achieve because finance is something I don’t need to think about, I’m leaving university without any debt.
When you get those types of moments like when you’ve finished an essay and you know you should probably go over it and work on it a bit, you get that extra motivation to say you know what I’m going to do the best to my full ability.
Miroslav Ludmilov Stambolsky
Miroslav received the Mature Student Scholarship and studies BA Anthropology and Visual Practice
How has the scholarship helped?
I’m doing Visual Practice so it was very important for me to get the kit I needed, so it allowed me to do that. It doesn't hurt to apply, so everyone should really go for it.
What does your scholarship mean to you?
I quit my fulltime job to get back to full time education. Every single penny counted towards it. Doing the course wouldn’t have been as comfortable as it is without the scholarship. It would have been a very different experience. With all the barriers that mature students face, this is like completely rearranging your entire life.
Ilme Vysniauskaite
Ilme received the Goldsmiths Masters Scholarship and studies MA Music
How has your scholarship helped you?
It gave me a little bit more freedom when I arrived in the UK. I moved here for my degree so I had to start everything from scratch. It was a new life for me so it helped me a lot.
I come from Lithuania and I was looking for funding opportunities, trying to save money and working in Paris. It’s quite difficult as an international student. It is a challenge but if you have enough will, you’re able to do things. If you do your best, people will notice.
David Budd
David received the Goldsmiths Masters Bursary and studies MSc Music Mind and Brain
How did you find the application process?
When I was looking at where I wanted to go, I was researching different programs and looking at the potential funding for each of them because I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it myself. As long as you understand why money is important, do your research and have a clear idea of what you want to do in the future it’s not too hard of a process.
It’s given me the opportunity to study without having to worry about money, which has been so nice.
João Noé Alves de Carvalho
João received the Santander Universities UK Scholarship and studies MA Political Communications
What does your scholarship mean to you?
Coming from Brazil as an international student, if I had paid the entire fee it would be very expensive and our currency was also a big issue for me. It’s had a really big impact because I was not expecting to receive the scholarship.
I had applied in 2014 and was accepted here without a scholarship or anything, but I decided to wait a year to save some money and then apply again. So I saved a big amount of money actually, it’s helped me a lot.
Emily Stuart
Emily received the Initial Teacher Education Fee Waiver and studies PGCE (Secondary): English
What does your scholarship mean to you?
I really didn’t expect to get it but it’s really lovely because in the long run it’s going to help me so much.
I remember one of the questions I had to answer was something like ‘What’s your relationship to the university’. I went to a school down the road, and I remember saying that I had passed the university every day. I love Lewisham so it is nice to have that support from them and it is special to receive their scholarship.
Joy Bell
Joy received the Goldsmiths’ Company Postgraduate Bursary and studies MA in Gender, Media & Culture
How has your scholarship helped you?
I’m the first person in my family to go to university so doing a Masters was always something that I’d dreamed of but I never thought it was attainable. For me, even doing an undergrad degree was an amazing thing that nobody expected. Being able to do a Masters and have my fees reduced was a huge deal – my mum cried! It really made this more achievable.
I’m thinking about doing a PhD. I love academia and I love my discipline and I love the Goldsmiths environment, so I’m just enjoying being here as long as I can.