3 May 1999 Scholarships a Longstanding Form of Support

Scholarships and bursaries have eased access to Lincoln and provided financial support to students from the very moment the institution opened 119 years ago.

Among the 16 foundation students at the University's forerunner, the School of Agriculture at Lincoln, there were five holders of Entrance Scholarships valued at 65 pounds each, which covered tuition and residential fees.

Today there are some 150 scholarships and bursaries ‘on the books’ at Lincoln University and suitably qualified students – either those coming into the University as ‘first years’ or those progressing through the subsequent years of their study can apply for a wide range of support.

"Scholarships have a twofold value," says the University's Scholarships Officer Toni Tebbutt. "First of all, and most importantly, they provide financial support to students so that they can actually start or continue their studies. Secondly they convey the prestige of significant names and connections on the holders. Think, for example, of the lifetime prestige associated with being a Rhodes Scholar or a Fulbright Scholar.

"And think too of the important New Zealand commemorative connections in such awards as the Ngarimu VC Scholarship and the CH Upham Scholarship."

While scholarships exist primarily to bring a direct benefit to the holder – usually financial help – they also have another ‘life’ as a form of on-going linkage between the benefactor or donor and the recipient institution. Thus there are scholarships at Lincoln such as the JMH Tripp Agricultural Scholarship which commemorates the longstanding interest in agricultural education taken by the Tripp family.

There are too many ‘memorial’ scholarships, established by families with Lincoln connections to commemorate the life of loved ones e.g. the TE Ludecke Memorial Award, marking the service of Soil Science Lecturer Terry Ludecke and the AC Rayner Memorial Scholarship, given in memory of Professor of Economics Tony Rayner who died suddenly in 1988.

Rural organisations (e.g. Nelson Bay/Golden Bay Federated Farmers), agribusinesses (e.g. Southland Frozen Meat Co.), professional bodies (e.g. NZ Institute of Valuers), accounting firms (e.g. Coopers and Lybrand) and producer boards (e.g. Meat Board) are all among the benefactors of other scholarships and bursaries tenable at Lincoln University (but in some cases also elsewhere, with courses of study rather than specific institutions being specified).

Thanks to a wide and varied range of benefactors, generous and loyal too, Lincoln University can safely say that it has virtually no field of study without some sort of financial support available in scholarship form and open to suitably qualified applicants.