Scholarships For Women: It's a woman's world, too

Caitlin Davies looks at the scholarships designed to end male domination of the business and finance world

London Business School has launched four new scholarships for women interested in the financial services industry, as part of a concerted effort to get more women into top leadership roles. The awards come at a time when Masters level scholarships for women are thin on the ground. A basic search for postgraduate scholarships on The Student Money website ( www.studentmoney.org.uk) yields 263 awards from 87 awarding bodies. But if you narrow the search by adding the keyword 'women' there are only nine.

One reason for the dearth of women-only scholarships could be that women now outnumber men on many full-time postgraduate courses, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency. This is particularly so in fields such as sociology and languages. But business schools are still struggling to attract female applicants, says Lyn Hoffman, associate dean of the Executive MBA programme at London Business School. This is partly because the differences in salary levels between men and women means an MBA is less affordable for women. In addition, many women see business organisations as macho and therefore less attractive as a possible career move.

"By offering scholarships we are doing two things," says Hoffman. "We are saying to women that this is a place where they should be, that this programme and this school is designed for women as well as men, that they can have a real impact, and that they can have successful and truly satisfying careers in business."

The Deutsche Bank Women's Scholarships will be awarded for the first time for students enrolling at London Business School next September. They consist of three scholarships for the full-time MBA and one for the Masters in Finance. Successful applicants will receive £20,000 each towards their course fees. The MBA, a two-year programme, costs £41,970 in total, while the one-year Masters in Finance costs £28,000.

London Business School already has a number of other scholarships for women on MBA programmes. These are the Forte Foundation scholarships (two awards at £20,000 each), a Citigroup scholarship (£10,000) and the Celia Atkin Avent scholarship (£20,000 for UK nationals only). There is also a Citigroup scholarship for the full time Masters in Finance (£10,000), two £10,000 scholarships for self-sponsored women on the executive MBA, and a scholarship for women on the Sloan Fellowship MSc designed for experienced senior managers. The Sloan Scholarship for Women was awarded for the first time this year to Dr Eustina Musvoto, a Zimbabwean born civil engineer.

"I would have done the Sloan programme anyway even if I had not won the scholarship because it has been part of my career development plan," says Musvoto. "However winning the scholarship has given me the financial benefit to realise this plan. The honour of winning such a prestigious scholarship is also important." She says there is a clear need to increase the participation of women in senior business roles and that scholarships help raise the profile of future women business leaders while also motivating more women to attend business school.

At the moment at least 75 per cent of MBA students at top business schools in the UK are men, so there is a strong need for more women. "We know it, and increasingly, I think, companies know it," says Hoffman. "We began working last year with Saatchi & Saatchi and Spencer Stuart on the Sloan Women's Scholarship, which enabled us to increase the proportion of women in this year's executive MBA class from 15 to 26 per cent."

Elsewhere there are few masters level scholarships targeted solely at women, and many have a limited life span of, say, three years. Those that exist are frequently for overseas students, such as the Benazir Bhutto Scholarship for Pakistani women at London Metropolitan University, which covers fees on taught Masters courses.

The London School of Economics has 12 scholarships for women, only one of which is specifically for those studying at Masters level: the Margaret Bennett Scholarship for North African Women studying law. For those on doctorate programmes, there is the Metcalfe Studentship for Women which is open to those who have graduated from a UK university. Successful candidates register as an MPhil/PhD student to undertake research on a social, economic or industrial problem and preference is given to those who study a problem bearing on the welfare of women. For full time students the minimum award is £1,000, and for part timers it's £500. Competition is stiff - around 30 women apply each year, of which on average only two are successful. This year the highest award was £1,700.

The LSE also has a £10,000 Laura Ashley Foundation PhD Scholarship for study in anthropology, and an Olive Stone Memorial Scholarship for women students on either Masters or PhD law programmes. This year one award was made of £8,000 and another of £1,000.

Other awards exclusively for women tend to be administered by award bodies rather than individual universities, and are similarly geared towards doctorate students. Take, for the example, the British Federation of Women Graduates (BGWG). Founded back in 1907, the group is about to send out 2000 leaflets to higher education institutes in the run up to their annual award competition which opens today.

Eligible applicants need to be studying in Great Britain and be about to embark on the final year of formal study towards a doctoral higher degree. The chief criterion is academic excellence, not financial need. Awards typically range from £1,000 to £3,000 and some are the result of memorial bequests, such as those from Professor Caroline Spurgeon, the first woman professor in England, and Dr Florence Stoney, a pioneer of X-ray and ultra violet light treatment. The purpose of the bequest is often very straightforward: to encourage more women to enter a particular field.

The BFWG receives around 100 applicants each year, of which around 16 are short-listed. "Our mission in life is to promote women's opportunities," says Annabelle Stein, BFWG secretary. "Last year four girls were awarded £3,000 each and the most brilliant girl got £6,000 for a maths PhD. Scholarships are important - these girls are our ambassadors for tomorrow."