Witherbys launches scholarship for rural students in Scotland

A new fund has been launched to support people from rural communities to access courses at the University of Highlands and Islands (UHI).

The Witherby Publishing Group Charitable Trust – which funds educational projects in Scotland – has donated £105,000 to provide scholarships and bursaries to individuals across the Highlands and Islands over the next three years.

The donation will be used to provide one new student per year with a scholarship of £3,000. The scholarship holder will receive £3,000 per year for the duration of their studies (up to four years), helping them to buy equipment, attend conferences, take part in field trips or to help with unexpected costs. Students will also be able to apply for bursaries up to £1,000. The fund will also go towards establishing an ambassador programme with the aim of inspiring young people in rural communities.

The publishing group is owned by  Kat Heathcote and her husband Iain Macneil, who joined the Merchant Navy aged 16 before going on to develop software to help other seafarers through their maritime exams. Macneil was awarded an honorary doctorate from UHI in 2022 and, as a result, was inspired to explore how Witherby Publishing Group Charitable Trust could support talented individuals from island and rural communities.

Macneil said: "It was a moving experience for me at the graduation ceremony at Eden Court in September 2022 to see so many people from the Highlands and Islands being helped to attain further and higher education, regardless of their age.

"Often the education and career decisions we make in our mid-to-late teens and early twenties do not reflect our actual skills or potential and the engagement work that UHI is undertaking in the rural communities of the North and West of Scotland with students of all ages, is incredibly important. The potential benefits that are achievable when people recognise that it’s not too late to learn or re-skill was something that our charitable trust definitely wanted to get behind."

Alison Wilson, UHI’s director of advancement and alumni engagement, said: "It’s a privilege to meet people like Iain who want to make a difference to the lives of young people in rural areas. The fact we both grew up in the Highlands and Islands at a time when people had to leave the region to go to university makes this donation and the sentiment behind it even more poignant."

To find out more about the Witherby Publishing Group Charitable Trust Scholarship, visit www.uhi.ac.uk/witherby.