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Ruth Cannell Scholarship Fund

Applications are open now.

The scholarship will be open to three students in the 2025/26 academic year, who will be undertaking their year abroad in the academic year 2026/27. This scholarship will support undergraduate students from widening participation backgrounds with their year abroad, enabling them to make the most of the opportunity.

The University of Liverpool is pleased to offer the Ruth Cannell Scholarships, made possible by a generous gift from the estate of Ruth Hildegard Cannell.

Ruth graduated from the University of Liverpool in 1948 with a BA Hons in German, and she described her time at Liverpool as some of the happiest years of her life. She then pursued an M.Phil in Russian from SOAS London, before moving to Hull, where she worked with Philip Larkin.

She then moved to Oxford, where in the Reader’s Guide for 1971 under G.G. Barber, Ruth is listed as Miss R.H. Cannell M.Phil (Slavonic and Eastern Europe). A gifted linguist, Ruth pursued a career as a librarian, cataloguing French, Italian and Spanish books. A staunch socialist, Ruth loved hill walking, folk music, cats, Tolstoy and Tolkien and was reading ‘War and Peace’ in Russian well into her nineties.

She travelled widely, and it is our hope that the Ruth Cannell Scholarships Fund will support students from under-represented backgrounds to be able to benefit from travel and exposure to the wider world, in a way that was so important to Ruth.

Ruth also donated a wide variety of her more valuable books to the University libraries in 2022 when she finished cataloguing her own library. More information on her donation can be found in the Special Collections and Archives and Libraries, Sydney Jones Library, University of Liverpool.

The award

The scholarship will be open to three students in the 2025/26 academic year, who will be undertaking their year abroad in the academic year 2026/27. Each scholarship will be worth £5,000.

This scholarship will support undergraduate students from widening participation backgrounds with their year abroad, enabling them to make the most of the opportunity.

The aim of a year abroad is to allow students to develop language and interpersonal skills, improving future employability and career prospects. The scholarship aims to allow students to fully engage with their year abroad, improving intercultural competence and confidence to work with people from different cultures.

Applicants must be ordinarily resident in the UK and be commencing their year abroad from September 2026.

Eligibility criteria

Please carefully check your eligibility before making an application for this scholarship. Awards may be withdrawn if we later become aware that successful students have not met the eligibility criteria or have provided false information.

Applicants must meet all of following criteria:

  1. Be a current second year student in the Department of Languages, Cultures and Film at the University of Liverpool
  2. Be undertaking a year abroad from September 2026
  3. You must have been assessed for fee status as a ‘Home’ student by Student Finance England or the relevant regional body
  4. Have made an application to Student Finance England or the relevant regional body and be in receipt of the full financial support you are entitled to for the 2026/27 academic year. Please ensure you have given consent to share this information with the University, as this information may be used to confirm eligibility.

Applicants must also meet at least one of the following criteria:

  1. Have participated in a University pre-entry supported access scheme. At the University of Liverpool this would have included the Liverpool Scholars scheme, Pathways to Law, Pathways to Banking and Finance, Pathways to Engineering or Realising Opportunities. Go Higher students are also eligible. Different universities offer different schemes. If you're unsure if you meet this criteria, please contact wpscholarships@liverpool.ac.uk
  2. Have been in receipt of, or entitled to, discretionary payments, 16-19 bursary, pupil premium or free school meals while at school or college
  3. Have received a contextual offer at the University of Liverpool
  4. Receive the full Liverpool Bursary of £2,000 per year
  5. Fall into one of the following student groups: Care experienced, estranged, young adult carer, refugee, asylum seeker
  6. Come from a home where neither parent attended university in the UK or abroad.

If you have any questions about your eligibility, please contact us at wpscholarships@liverpool.ac.uk to discuss.

The application process

Applications are made via our online form.

As part of your application, you’ll need to provide us with your personal details, including your University student ID number.

You’ll also need to provide a statement in response to the question “How would this scholarship support your year abroad, and what difference would that experience make to your academic, personal and future career goals?”

You have a maximum of 4,000 characters for your statement.

Closing date

The closing date for the scholarship is 5pm on 1st July 2026. We are unable to accept late applications.

Decisions

A panel of representatives from the University of Liverpool Widening Participation and Outreach team and the Department of Languages, Cultures and Film will assess applications and make final decisions.

Enquiries

If you have questions about the award please contact: wpscholarships@liverpool.ac.uk.