Staff donate their pennies to make a difference to students

Our Donate your Pennies Scheme continues to grow from strength to strength, with nearly 900 staff now signed up, generating a combined £400 per month towards student scholarships.

The money raised over the last year was used to fund eight bursaries worth £1,000 for first year students who have come from local sixth forms/colleges – the V16 Bursary and the Colchester Sixth Form Bursary. To be eligible for the bursary, students had to have picked Essex as their firm choice by the July before they were due to start in September.

What our students say

"The bursary will help with all sorts of day-to-day bits and pieces like my bus passes and books for my course. I had the best experience studying at Colchester Sixth Form and this has really helped my transition to the University of Essex. I’m beyond grateful to the alumni and staff of the university that have funded my bursary.” Morgan Haggerty - BA Multimedia Journalism, 2018 Colchester Sixth Form Bursary Recipient

“This bursary has paid for most of my transport to and from university making it a less stressful time. It’s allowed me to not worry and enjoy my time at university!” Ryan Cockerline - BA Economics with Modern Languages, 2018 Colchester Sixth Form Bursary Recipient

“As a commuting student I didn’t apply for a maintenance loan, my bursary will help me with costs like petrol, parking and buying university essentials like books (as a literature student I need a lot of these.) Even though I have a part-time job, it allows me prioritise my studies without having to panic about money.” Olivia Whyte – BA English & US Literature, 2018 VI6 Bursary Recipient 

How more staff can get involved 

Donate your Pennies is a scheme that staff can sign up to at any time simply by emailing jrmartin@essex.ac.uk and asking to join. Once you are signed up, your remainder pennies at the end of your net salary are donated towards student scholarships. On average this is about 50p per month – it may seem small but added up amongst all staff donors it equals thousands of pounds a year, all towards helping students.

Donating the pennies in your salary is now not the only way you can get involved, as our Penny Piggybanks have now been installed in campus shop and venues. Earlier this week the SU Kitchen became the first to fill their piggybank, with £14.03 going towards student scholarships.