Sovereign Health Care funds scholarship for Bradford students

 The not-for-profit health care cash plan company, which has long supported the University, has given £30,000 to support six scholarships for students from the Bradford District.  

The gift to the University’s Bradford Futures Fund will provide six students facing socio-economic disadvantage with £1,500 for every year of their degree course, up to a maximum of four years.  

Neil McCallum, Chief Executive at Sovereign Health Care, said: "Sovereign’s ethos is all about supporting wellbeing within our local communities. Enabling social mobility is a huge element of this and so it’s rewarding to know that we’re helping  young people achieve their potential irrespective of their financial circumstances. We wish the students benefitting from this funding all the best for success in their studies and look forward to seeing them achieve great things." 

More than 50 per cent of students at the University of Bradford come from low-income backgrounds and 43 per cent come from Bradford postcodes.  

Pro-Vice Chancellor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Professor Udy Archibong, said: "At Bradford, the principle of equality of opportunity is at the heart of everything we do.  We are absolutely dedicated to improving the life chances of our students, something which has put us at the top of the Social Mobility Index in England for the third year running.  

“This generous gift from Sovereign Health Care will mean we can offer more support to students most in need, at a time when the rising cost of living has brought increased financial pressure."

Sovereign Health Care was established in 1873 as a Bradford-based hospital fund to help people access health care long before the arrival of the NHS. Today, it operates as a not-for-profit business and is one of the UK’s leading cash plan providers.  

To mark its 150th anniversary this year, Sovereign has donated a record £1.5m to a number of health and wellbeing good causes, including over £800,000 to Yorkshire NHS trusts. 

Sovereign Health Care started supporting the University in 2008, with the Bradford Can … Appeal, to set up a chair of cancer research at the University.  In 2012, they partnered with the University, along with Yorkshire Cancer Research and the Telegraph & Argus,  to launch the Bradford Crocus Cancer Appeal. The aim of the appeal, which still continues today, is to improve the number of opportunities for the discovery and development of new cancer medicines at the Institute of Cancer Therapeutics.  

Since then, Sovereign has donated £20,000  towards a new phlebotomy suite at the University’s Digital Health Enterprise Zone (DHEZ) as well as £36,000 towards resuscitation equipment for Paramedic Science students.