We are an independent, alumni-led charity that supports
St Peter’s College by investing in its people.
We are an independent, alumni-led charity that supports St Peter’s College by investing in its people. We do this by promoting access to the College for students irrespective of means or background, by providing financial support for students in residence, and by investing in teaching resources. We also seek to fund special projects which enhance the whole St Peter’s experience.
Our Mission & Activities
Recent Projects Supported



Undergraduate Support
Every year, the Foundation provides bursaries to undergraduates from lower-income households. These bursaries allow students to focus on their academic work and to get the most out of life at the College, reducing financial worries and the need to find part-time employment while studying.
In addition, the Foundation finances a range of other initiatives that enable St Peter’s undergraduates to pursue valuable co-curricular opportunities and experiences. These include: Travel Grants, which enable students to undertake unpaid internships, research trips and other initiatives that challenge them to develop and think beyond their Oxford studies; Vacation Grants, which ensure that students can afford suitable between-term accommodation from which they can revise, study or research; and Reading Parties, which provide students and tutors with a productive time away together – reading, discussing intensively, presenting to each other and preparing for Finals. All these initiatives have a big impact on students’ wellbeing and academic success.
Graduate Support
The Foundation supports the academic and personal development of graduate students with the provision of Graduate Research Grants. These grants make a big difference to both taught and research graduate students, supporting conference and research travel, projects and fieldwork expenses.
Recent grants have supported a diverse range of research projects around the world, including: the investigation of a protein which regulates genes in leukaemia; the development of deep learning models to test climate risk; and the study of gravity and time using mathematical tools from quantum information theory.
In 2022, the Foundation also funded the first Marshall Scholarship at St Peter’s and continues to support this exciting initiative. The programme finances young Americans of high ability to study for a graduate degree in the UK and is one of the world’s most distinguished and respected scholarship programmes.
Those selected to be Marshall Scholars are both academically excellent and potential future US leaders. For example, the work of a recent St Peter’s Marshall Scholar on infectious diseases included supporting clinical trials in Uganda and Peru, and evaluating novel tuberculosis diagnostics as part of the Oxford Vaccine Group.
We are excited by St Peter’s participation in the Marshall Scholarship programme, which will help the College become a destination of choice for elite applicants over the longer-term.

Outreach initiatives
The Foundation provides substantial support for access and outreach initiatives, including sponsoring a groundbreaking project in collaboration with Aspire Liverpool. This is a high-quality, bespoke residential programme provided annually by St Peter’s to over 70 talented young people from Liverpool state schools. This potentially life-changing programme encourages more applications to the College from excellent students with diverse backgrounds, and supports their academic development ahead of entry into Year 13 and the university application process. The programme gives participants first-hand experience of life at St Peter’s, including living in College accommodation, eating meals in Hall and being taught on-site. Participants also receive support with the admissions process and experience university-level teaching in small groups delivered by College academics. Their teachers also receive tailored support on preparing and guiding candidates through the application process. The initiative has increased the number of applicants from low-participation areas who are able to benefit from, and contribute to, St Peter’s, as well as consolidating the College’s long-standing links with Liverpool.
Noel Speake Bursary
In 2019, we established a special bursary in honour of Noel Speake, a talented and greatly admired former St Peter’s student who sadly passed away in 2016. A Foundation Trustee and close friend of Noel’s led the appeal for this bursary by undertaking a 520-mile bicycle ride in the Highlands of Scotland – and, together with Noel’s family and friends and other Foundation supporters, raised the funds to help establish the programme.
Hrothgar Singaporean Clarendon Scholarship
Since 2012, the Hrothgar Singaporean Clarendon Scholarship, generously funded by a Patron of the Foundation, has provided funding for postgraduate students from Singapore. Most recently, this scholarship has supported a DPhil student undertaking exciting research in the field of molecular electronics – in particular building and testing single electron transistors with molecular graphene nanoribbons.


Student Welfare
The Foundation provides funding for student welfare, recognising that that the opportunity to thrive at St Peter’s is determined as much by wellbeing as academic success. In 2018, the College appointed a part-time Dean of Welfare to oversee and coordinate its welfare provision – and, with support from the Foundation, this appointment was subsequently extended to a permanent, full-time position.
In addition, during the Covid crisis, the Foundation made a special donation of £380,000 to the College, in large part to assist them in releasing students from their accommodation contracts for time spent at home. Our support also enabled new laptops and routers to be provided to struggling students to help them access their tuition in a remote environment.
The Foundation’s ongoing funding for student welfare is an important part of our mission to invest in people.
Supplementary Teaching
The Foundation funds a programme of supplementary teaching, aimed at students whose previous schooling has not fully equipped them for the demands of an Oxford degree course. In particular, we have supported Academic Writing Courses and Mathematics Bridging Programmes, which have proved to be of great value to students from less advantaged educational backgrounds.
We have also funded additional teaching support for undergraduates in a range of other subjects including Modern Languages, Chemistry, History, Medicine, and Economics and Management.
Music
Thanks to the generosity of a Patron of the Foundation, we funded the installation of a video and livestream capability in the College Chapel. This has enabled College events to be broadcast to the wider St Peter’s community, including alumni and other supporters.
Recently, we also funded a professional recording of the music of Piers Kennedy by the College Choir. This recording was the culmination of a year-long partnership with Piers as the College’s Composer in Association, significantly enhancing the musical education of the 22 members of the choir involved in this exciting project.
Castle Bailey Quad
The Foundation has provided funding for a significant capital project – the development of Castle Bailey Quad – because of its transformational impact on future student access and welfare at the College.
This development created two new accommodation buildings on a plot of land directly adjacent to the College, providing over 50 new student rooms, as well as a new courtyard, a new common room and a new entrance to the College.
More than half of second-year undergraduates can now be housed on-site, making St Peter’s an even more attractive choice of college – and, in particular, for those from less well-off backgrounds who might otherwise struggle in the Oxford rental market in their second year. It will therefore ensure that St Peter’s remains a destination of choice for talented applicants, irrespective of their means.
The Foundation contributed a total of £462,500 to the project, which received matched funding from a generous benefactor of the College. This was our largest-ever single donation to the College, in recognition of the strategic importance of this initiative, and its fit with the Foundation’s mission of promoting student welfare and access. In acknowledgement of this gift, the student common room in the new development is named “The Foundation Room”.
Other Initiatives
Over the years, the Foundation has funded a diverse range of other projects to enhance the College experience for undergraduates, graduates and Fellows. These have included: an upgraded heating system; new display cases for the Chavasse family decorations; equipment for clinical medical students; an annual event celebrating College sport; and an event to mark the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio.

