The Royal College of Music (RCM) in London, one of the world’s greatest conservatoires, has announced the establishment of the Community Jameel Hardship Fund to support RCM students who are experiencing unexpected difficulty or financial hardship, for an initial period of three years. All students are eligible to apply.
The new fund represents a continuation of the RCM’s relationship with the global philanthropy Community Jameel, which in November 2019 saw the launch of a scholarship supported by Community Jameel and the Andrea Bocelli Foundation.
The first Jameel Scholar to be supported by the Community Jameel Hardship Fund for the 2020/21 academic year is Tunisian violinist Bacem Anas Romdhani. Having graduated from the RCM with a masters in 2020, Romdhani will study for an artist diploma.
Professor Colin Lawson, director of the RCM, said: “I am enormously grateful on behalf of everyone at the RCM for Community Jameel’s continued support of our students. In what has been an immensely challenging year, Community Jameel’s generous gift will have a significant impact for those who have unexpectedly found themselves facing financial hardship. The RCM has a long history of philanthropic support which provides greater access to our world-leading education.”
Mohammed Jameel KBE, founder of Community Jameel, said: “At Community Jameel, we are committed to supporting access to quality musical education, particularly for students from the Arab world, a region with a longstanding tradition of producing world-class composers, conductors and performers, and home to opera houses, concert halls and orchestras.
“Through the Community Jameel Hardship Fund, we are proud to be partnering again with the RCM to support students facing financial difficulties, and assisting international students from the Arab world to attend one of the world’s best conservatoires.”
This Hardship Fund continues the support of Community Jameel for the institutions of South Kensington, including the Jameel Gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Jameel Institute at Imperial College, and the Bocelli-Jameel Scholarship at the RCM.
Any surplus in the fund will provide scholarship support for international students, with a preference for students from the Arab world.
More than 50 percent of current RCM students have received financial support during their studies through scholarships and awards, thanks to the generosity of a variety of charitable trusts, companies, businesses, individual members of the public and legacies.
Founded in 1883, the Royal College of Music is a world-leading music conservatoire with a prestigious history and contemporary outlook. For the fifth consecutive year in 2020, the RCM was ranked as the top institution in the UK for the performing arts in the QS World University Rankings.
