University boost for Denbigh and St Asaph students

Sep 4 2008 By David Simister

VALE students heading off to university this month are being offered a degree of comfort, thanks to a new financial help announced this week.

Around 70 students at Denbigh High School and Ysgol Glan Clwyd in St Asaph are being offered bursaries for up to £1000 a year to help them study, funded by donations from the newly-founded John Bennett Parry Trust.

John wanted young people to experience life at university as he had at Sheffield and at Oxford. He didn’t want them to be put off by the prospects of huge loans to have to be repaid nor for parents to have to make the sacrifices his parents had had to make" said Steve Nott, one of the body’s trustees.

"The availability of such a bursary might also encourage students who want to study at non Welsh universities, for whatever reason, to be able to do so."

The trust, set up earlier this year, is a registered charity named after Nantglyn local John Bennett Parry, who died in 2006. He left his estate in trust to the benefit of young people getting an education, leading to the creation of the charity, which aims to aid underprivileged youngsters from Denbigh and St Asaph.

Students who have studied in the sixth form of either Denbigh High School or Ysgol Glan Clwyd are eligible to enter for the grant, which could total as much as £4,000 if paid yearly on a four-year degree course. All entries must be made through the heads of the schools.