Major new graduate scholarship programme at Oxford made possible
by the most generous gift for Humanities students in the
University's 900-year history
LONDON, Feb. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- The University of Oxford
has established The Mica and Ahmet Ertegun Graduate Scholarship
Programme in the Humanities, which will be launched immediately
with 15 scholarships a year and will eventually be endowed in
perpetuity to award at least 35 graduate humanities scholarships
annually.
Leading humanities students from throughout the world will compete
for full graduate scholarships in fields as diverse as literature,
history, music, archaeology, art history, Asian studies, and Middle
Eastern studies.
The recipients of the prestigious award will have the exclusive use
of The Mica and Ahmet Ertegun House for the Study of the
Humanities, a five-storey Georgian building in the heart of Oxford,
which will be fitted out with state-of-the-art technological
capability and serve as the base for study and research by the
Ertegun Scholars.
The gift will ultimately amount to more than GBP26 million. In
addition to funding the scholarships themselves in perpetuity, the
gift will also endow in perpetuity the salary of a full-time
Ertegun Senior Scholar in Residence who will provide mentorship for
the Ertegun Scholars, and a Programme of lectures, seminars,
concerts and other activities at Ertegun House.
The Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Lord Patten, said:
"Through the generosity of Mica Ertegun, the best Humanities
graduate students in the world will have the opportunity, in
perpetuity, to undertake high-quality research, to interact with
other fine minds, and to increase the sum of human knowledge and
understanding. This kind of support for postgraduates is vital for
the future of research and human understanding, and vital for the
future of great universities like Oxford. It allows us to ensure
that the very best minds are supporting the University's research
endeavour now and will be the cutting edge researchers of the
future."
Mica Ertegun, the Romanian-born widow of famed Atlantic Records
founder Ahmet Ertegun, lives in New York City and is one of the
world's foremost interior designers.
"For Ahmet and for me, one of the great joys of life has been the
study of history, music, languages, literature, art and
archaeology," Mrs. Ertegun said. "In these times, when there is so
much strife in the world, I believe it is tremendously important to
support those things that endure across time, that bind people
together from every culture, and that enrich the capacity of human
beings to understand one another and make the world a more humane
place. I am very proud of the Ertegun Graduate Scholarship
Programme at Oxford, and I intend that it provide an enduring
inspiration for brilliant and enthusiastic students from all over
the world to devote themselves to the study of the Humanities. My
dream is that, one day, Ertegun Scholars will be leaders in every
field - as historians and philosophers, as archaeologists and
literary scholars, as writers and composers, as statesmen and
theologians."
Oxford's Vice-Chancellor, Andrew Hamilton, said of the Ertegun
Graduate Scholarship Programme: "This is a significant moment for
the study of the Humanities and the largest donation specifically
for the Humanities in the 900-year history of Oxford. At a time
when, in the UK, government support for the Humanities is under
intense pressure, vision and generosity like this is going to be
what saves the field for future generations. We are immensely
grateful to Mrs Ertegun and Americans for Oxford, Inc. for making
the Ertegun Graduate Scholarship Programme possible."
Ertegun House will be ready for the first group of Ertegun Scholars
in the Michaelmas term, commencing in September 2012.
Website: http://www.ox.ac.uk/ertegun
SOURCE﹛The University of Oxford