Lord Snowdon (1930–2017)

In November, the Snowdon Trust, the disabled students’ charity founded by Lord Snowdon in 1981, announced the first of what they hope will become a programme of full scholarship opportunities for disabled students undertaking Master's degree courses at some of the UK’s greatest universities, including the Royal College of Art.

The Royal College of Art has been chosen as the Snowdon Trust’s partner for the first scholarship, in recognition of Lord Snowdon’s long association with the College, and the College's reputation for training artists and designers who go on to occupy leadership positions across the creative industries. 

Lord Snowdon was Provost of the RCA from 1995 to 2004, and also endowed a series of awards for disability design projects at the RCA’s Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, the world’s leading centre for inclusive design. The Snowdon Trust was founded by Lord Snowdon in 1981 and to date, has provided grants to disabled students towards their additional disability-related costs where these are not covered by statutory or other funding. The scholarship programme will be an addition to its current grants programme; in the current 2017/18 academic year they have already awarded grants totalling £238,000 to 88 disabled students across the UK. 

The scholarship programme is being launched in 2016, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the publication of the Snowdon Working Party’s groundbreaking 1976 report, Integrating the Disabled. An investigation into issues affecting disabled people, the report also made a series of key recommendations on better integrating disabled people into society, laying the foundations for a transformation in attitudes towards disability in areas such as education, employment, housing, public transport, sport and accessibility of public buildings. Almost two decades later, in 1995, the landmark Disability Discrimination Act was passed by Parliament.

Professor Naren Barfield, Pro-Rector of the Royal College of Art, added: 'The direct connection from Lord Snowdon, our former Provost, and the very first Snowdon Scholar is one to be celebrated, and we are delighted to be partnering with the Snowdon Trust at the outset of such an exciting initiative.'

Dr Renny Leach, chairman of the Snowdon Trust said: 'The Snowdon Trust was founded to help disabled people achieve equality in further and higher education. This new scholarship programme reaches further: we want to support some truly exceptionally talented disabled people to become future leaders in their fields and in doing so, act as inspiration for others to follow. Snowdon Scholarship funding will mean they can concentrate fully on their studies to achieve their true potential.'

The Tony Snowdon Scholarship is open to students with physical and sensory disabilities who will be commencing their Master's degree programme at RCA in the 2017/18 academic year. It will cover the student’s full Master's fees for the two-year course and provide a grant of £15,000 p.a. towards living costs.