Royal College of Music and Community Jameel establish Hardship Fund to support students in need
- The new fund will support students for whom financial hardship might be a barrier to studying at the world-class institution.
- The fund is the next stage of an ongoing relationship between the Royal College of Music and global philanthropy Community Jameel.
Today, the Royal College of Music (RCM) has announced the establishment of the Community Jameel Hardship Fund to support RCM students who are experiencing unexpected difficulty or financial hardship, for an initial period of three years.
Bacem Anas Romdhani, inaugural Jameel Scholar, is a Tunisian viol
The Royal College of Music in London is one of the world’s greatest conservatoires
The new fund represents a continuation of the RCM’s relationship with the global philanthropy Community Jameel, which in November 2019 saw the launch of a scholarship supported by Community Jameel and the Andrea Bocelli Foundation.
The Community Jameel Hardship Fund will be used to support RCM students who are experiencing unexpected financial difficulty and all students are eligible to apply.
The first Jameel Scholar to be supported by the Community Jameel Hardship Fund for the 2020/21 academic year is Tunisian violinist Bacem Anas Romdhani. Having graduated from the RCM with a Masters in 2020, Bacem Anas Romdhani will study for an Artist Diploma.
Professor Colin Lawson, Director of the RCM, comments: ‘I am enormously grateful on behalf of everyone at the Royal College of Music for Community Jameel’s continued support of our students. In what has been an immensely challenging year, Community Jameel’s generous gift will have a significant impact for those who have unexpectedly found themselves facing financial hardship. The RCM has a long history of philanthropic support which provides greater access to our world-leading education.’
Mohammed Jameel KBE, Founder of Community Jameel, said: ‘At Community Jameel, we are committed to supporting access to quality musical education, particularly for students from the Arab world, a region with a long-standing tradition of producing world-class composers, conductors and performers, and home to opera houses, concert halls and orchestras.
‘Through the Community Jameel Hardship Fund, we are proud to be partnering again with the Royal College of Music to support students facing financial difficulties, and assisting international students from the Arab world to attend one of the world’s best conservatoires.’
This Hardship Fund continues the support of Community Jameel for the institutions of South Kensington, including the Jameel Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Jameel Institute at Imperial College, and the Bocelli-Jameel Scholarship at the RCM.
Any surplus in the fund will provide scholarship support for international students, with a preference for students from the Arab world.
More than 50% of current Royal College of Music students have received financial support during their studies through scholarships and awards, thanks to the generosity of a variety of charitable trusts, companies, businesses, individual members of the public and legacies. More information can be found at www.rcm.ac.uk/support.
