Page 15 - Mansfield 2019/20

Sanctuary at Mansfield
Announcing the Council of Lutheran Churches Scholarship
Mansfield was founded to welcome students who had up until the mid-19th century been excluded from an Oxford education because of their religious beliefs. Today we remain true to this inclusive tradition and, in conjunction with the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, we are proud to stand up for equal dignity, respect and rights for all.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), half the refugees worldwide are under the age of 18, and only about three per cent of them enter higher education. Funding is a major barrier.
From October 2021, thanks to new support from the Council of Lutheran Churches, Mansfield College will offer a fully funded graduate scholarship to an outstanding student who has been forced to migrate from their home and has sought sanctuary in the UK.
We are delighted that through our shared commitment to supporting refugees,
and also through our new Chaplain,
Sarah Farrow, we have re-established Mansfield’s historic partnership with the Lutheran Church. From the mid-1950s to the 1990s, Mansfield was the only educational foundation in the UK to offer
training for Lutheran pastors, through
a tutorship established by the Lutheran World Foundation (LWF) in co-operation with the Council of Lutheran Churches. Interestingly, one of the LWF tutors, Dr Jan Womer, acted as Principal of the College from 1986 to 1988.
The Council of Lutheran Churches Scholarship is intended to meet the needs of a highly able student whose education has been disrupted by forced migration, and reflects Mansfield’s continued commitment to the College’s founding principles. This scholarship will cover living costs and, in partnership with the University of Oxford, all fees.
The new scholarship is part of an
initiative by Mansfield – working
with Somerville College, which is also launching a Sanctuary Scholarship – to engage more closely with people seeking asylum in the United Kingdom. We commit to learning what it means to be seeking sanctuary, and celebrating sanctuary seekers’ contributions to society, through a varied programme of activities. These will include: student-led and College- supported initiatives; collaborations with the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights; and an annual event organised jointly with Somerville College. The first of the joint
‘ We commit to learning what it means to be seeking sanctuary, and celebrating sanctuary seekers’ contributions to society’
events took place in July 2020 with the principals of both colleges welcoming Lord Alf Dubs to speak, interviewed by broadcaster Natasha Kaplinsky.
Mansfield and Somerville Colleges are together applying for College of Sanctuary status. This scheme, which grew from the City of Sanctuary movement, involves pledging to provide the most welcoming and accessible environment possible for refugees and asylum seekers.
The scholarships reflect the University of Oxford’s broadening efforts to support refugees. The Oxford Students Refugee Campaign, a student-led initiative, has provided financial support for seven refugee students at Oxford in recent years and work is taking place to create new provision across the collegiate University.
‘I am delighted that our community was universally so supportive of offering a refugee scholar the opportunity to study at Mansfield, and that Mansfield and Somerville Colleges are working together to apply for College of Sanctuary status.’
Helen Mountfield QC, Principal, Mansfield College
15