Four University of Birmingham students to benefit from Jane Slowey Memorial Bursary
Commonweal Housing and the University of Birmingham are proud to present the newest recipients of the Jane Slowey Memorial Bursary.
Rebecca Williams, Charlie Young, Csenge (Cicy) Földvári-Nagy and Katie Battie will each receive a bursary of £2,500 to support them in their final-year research, as well as informal mentoring support from Commonweal.
The bursary, which opened in 2018, is open to students at Birmingham University’s School of Social Policy who are researching housing, social justice and young people in their final year of study.
The students will be researching a range of subjects related to social injustice and housing, including youth homelessness, social housing and gang crime, international approaches to homelessness, and the impact of poor housing on educational achievement.
The bursary remembers Commonweal’s late trustee Jane Slowey CBE, who studied at the University of Birmingham and who sadly passed away in 2017. Jane’s extensive experience in the housing sector, as well as her imagination and her dedication to helping others, brought Commonweal’s vision and ethos to life from its early days.
Rebecca said, “It was a real honour and motivational boost to be one of the 2020 Commonweal bursary recipients which was created to honour the life and work of Jane Slowey CBE.”
“This award will enable me to focus on my dissertation without being worried about potential funding costs and lets me reduce my part time job hours which detracted from my studies but were needed to make ends meet. But above all of the monetary matters, this award has provided a real boost to my study plans and dissertation choice. The work of Commonweal is exemplary and to be selected to receive such an honour has been such a positive experience. I am now keen to start my research, collaborate where possible, and produce a dissertation worthy of the award.”
Charlie said, “I’m excited to begin working on my research in association with Commonweal Housing on a topic I find so important.”
“The aid from the Jane Slowey Memorial Bursary will prove invaluable, especially considering the personal impact of COVID-19, and I’m glad that this will enable me to maximise the potential of my dissertation, researching the manner in which social housing estates interact with gang crime.”
Cicy said, “Being awarded the Jane Slowey Memorial Bursary is one of the biggest honours of my life!”
“I am fully committed to producing a unique high-quality dissertation, and with the support of Commonweal through the Jane Slowey Memorial Award I am one step closer to my goal. I am dedicated to research homelessness and inequality, while looking to identify possible solutions through housing policy. I am looking forward to engaging with Commonweal!”
Katie said, “I am very happy and grateful to receive this award. I am looking forward to working with Commonweal Housing.”
“This exciting opportunity will allow me to produce a high quality research project on the effects of housing on educational attainment.”
The four recipients will be invited to present their dissertation work to a select group of Commonweal’s friends, staff, Trustees and members of Jane Slowey’s immediate family, at a celebration event in summer 2021.
To find out more about the bursary, visit the University of Birmingham’s website.