As a Department, we believe that anyone should have the opportunity to access a high-quality Chemistry education regardless of their socio-economic background. We are committed to increasing the proportion of students that join us for their degrees from underprivileged backgrounds. We have introduced proactive changes to our admission process to ensure that we give all our applicants a fair chance at success. For more information about the Department’s outreach activities, please see the Outreach page.

Scholarships and support schemes

In 2020, we received a generous endowment from the family of Alexander Cross to enable us to widen participation in summer placements for those students who have overcome barriers in accessing study with us. The Cross family have funded two generous scholarships for undergraduate students in addition to providing funds to support UROP placements in our department. This scheme will fund up to five students per year to undertake a six-eight week project in a research lab during their summer break, enabling those who could not otherwise afford to undertake such placements a valuable chance to strengthen their experience.

The Imperial Student Support Fund

The College also provides a Student Support Fund to assist students with financial hardship. This scheme has been expanded to take into account the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.