£1M John Oldcare Foundation award set to fund range of student scholarships

Posted 26 October 2018

Harper Adams University is delighted to have been awarded £1million by the John Oldacre Foundation to provide a fund from which support can be drawn to support a PhD scholarship, together with taught postgraduate and undergraduate awards starting from academic year 2019/2020.

The awards will be co-funded by other charities or industry partners as well as the Harper Adams Club, which has agreed to draw on its annual funds donated by alumni to help support the new scholarship scheme.

Dr David Llewellyn, Vice-Chancellor of Harper Adams University said: “The University has been supported in its applied research work by the John Oldacre Foundation for many years. We are delighted that the Trustees have decided to make a major donation to the University so that it can continue work to support PhD students, and to extend that opportunity to undergraduate and postgraduate students on their taught programmes."

Mr Henry Shouler, Trustee of the John Oldacre Foundation said: “The Trust has been very pleased with its long standing links with Harper Adams and that we have now entered into a partnership with the University that ensures that the John Oldacre legacy will be maintained in perpetuity, through the research and experience of the future John Oldacre Scholars chosen by the University.”

WJ Oldacre (senior) started trading as a hay merchant and carrier in Gloucestershire in 1881. Over the next 100 years three generations of the family developed the business into the largest manufacturer of animal feed compounds in private ownership. The John Oldacre Foundation was formed in 1981 and has provided financial support for the advancement or promotion, for the public benefit, of research and education in agricultural sciences and the publication of the useful results of such research since that date.