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FlOW ISSUE 102 3> However, scholarships and travel bursaries, like the oneHamilton obtained from the Friends of Glasgow School ofArt, can help turn the dreams of the next generation ofartists, designers and architects into reality.Scott Parsons, Head of Marketing and Developmentat the GSA, said:“Scholarships are a huge tool that allowpeople to study. In some US schools, 80% of the studentsare on scholarships, but that culture has not yet permeatedinto the UK.“If we want to continue to attract the best students,then scholarships are going to become more and moreimportant. Scholarships are a vote of confidence in a person.They can be completely transformational and dramaticallychange people’s lives.”Because of the international reputation of the GSA,emergent designers, architects and artists not just fromthe UK, but from other parts of the world, aspire to cometo Glasgow to study.The GSA believes access to the worldclasseducation it offers should be based on talent, abilityand the potential of applicants – not whether they canafford to pay.The School is fully aware that if it is to continueto attract the best students – locally, nationally orinternationally – then the financial barriers need to beaddressed.Who knows how many potentially brilliant youngartists, architects or designers from Scotland, the UK andoverseas, could have flourished at the GSA but did not havethe chance to enrol because they did not have the money?To address this issue, in 2002, the School set up the NextGeneration Fund to finance a portfolio of scholarships toensure financial constraints do not stop the brightest andthe best from achieving their full potential at the GSA.The Fund had a target of raising £500,000 over five years,but due to the generosity of alumni, friends and supporters ofthe School, more than £1.4m has been donated, with another£1million pledged through legacies and bequests.Thissupport has allowed the Next Generation Fund to supportundergraduate and postgraduate scholarships in threedistinct areas: international scholarships, researchscholarships, and access scholarships. It has also providedtravel bursaries that have granted a number of students,who would not normally be in a position to finance studiesabroad, the chance to undertake an international exchangeas part of their third year of study.The days when UK students received a grant are nowa distant memory and attending art school can be anexpensive undertaking.With postgraduate fees for UKand European Union students running to more than £3,000,and fees for international students – both undergraduateand postgraduate – costing more than £9,000, it is not hardto see why some aspiring students will not be able to affordto come to the GSA.Rasika Anantharaman, from Chennai, India, a first yeartextile design student is now thriving at the GSA, thanksto the assistance she received from a Governor’s OverseasScholarship.There are five Governor’s Scholarships for internationalundergraduates, and the 19-year-old says that the £2,000she receives has eased her financial struggles and allowedher to concentrate more on her studies than money.“It would have made my life really much more difficult ifI didn’t have the scholarship and I am really grateful to theSchool for helping me out,” she said.“I am still financiallydependant on my parents, but it has really helped me withmore funds for course materials.”The GSA is hoping alumni who are now enjoying thefruits of a successful career – as well as companies and otherbodies such as trusts – will consider giving something backby funding new scholarships, to build on the success of theFund.The School is aiming to at least double the amountthat has been raised over the past few years, to help buildendowment funds which will ensure scholarships can beawarded in perpetuity.There are many reasons why individuals or organisationsdecide to fund scholarships. It may be in memory of aloved one who studied at the GSA, as a thank you for theeducation they received, or because of a deep-seated beliefin the civilising benefits of higher education. But in eachcase, the money donated can be the vital differencebetween a student coming to the GSA, or giving upin despair.Interior designer Rosemary Lucas is now based inSydney,Australia, but was born and raised in Glasgow andstill remembers the inspirational time she had studyingat the GSA in the 1960s.Rosemary inherited money when her mother died in2005, and decided to use some of it to fund a scholarship togive others the chance to experience the same opportunitiesshe enjoyed.She donated £112,000 to create an annual £1,500scholarship lasting three to four years to cover maintenancecosts in perpetuity.Rosemary, whose father Lancelot Ross was a wellknownarchitect in post-war Glasgow, knows the benefitsof scholarships. She was lucky enough to receive one thatallowed her to travel to Germany and Italy to studyindustrial design after she graduated with a Diplomain Art in 1967.“Studying at The Glasgow School of Art was a veryinteresting time for me because it had a very goodreputation for design and I felt very stimulated by thepeople who taught me and the people I studied with,”she said.“Education is a very important part of people’s livesand without a sound basis in education, you cannotmove forward.“I came from a family that was modestly well-off. I got agrant and my father subsidised my living expenses, but nowit is much more of a struggle where students have to work acouple of jobs to support themselves and at the end theyhave to pay back (their loans), which is a double whammy.I want this scholarship to ease the burden of these thingsso that they do not compromise on the students’ abilityto study and train.”Alister MacCallum set up a scholarship in memory ofLilian, his wife of more than 50 years, whom he met whileshe was studying at the GSA.Lilian was from Kelso in the Borders, and although herparents were not impoverished, she found life at the ArtSchool in the late 1940s a financial struggle. Mr MacCallum,a retired lawyer, set up a £2,500 scholarship to be spreadover five years.“I hope that it might just make it possible for somestudent to do a course at The Glasgow School of Art whomight not otherwise have been able to,” he said.“Lilian was from the Borders and most people from therewent to further education in Edinburgh and I would not havemet her if she had not come to the Art School in Glasgow.I felt it was all because of her being at the Art School thatI had come to know her and be so happy with her, andI wanted to express my appreciation to the Art Schoolfor all that.”8EGALITARIAN EDUCATION FOR THE TALENT OF TOMORROW