The Department of History is pleased to announce - on this the forty first anniversary of the military coup in Chile - the launch of a website dedicated to the World University Service scholarship programme for Chilean academic refugees. The programme ran from 1973 to 1985 and gave grants to more than 900 Chilean scholars to continue and complete their studies in the UK. The programme saved many lives and helped to rebuild an academic community dislocated by the aftermath of the military coup, providing a source of moral and practical support for WUS award holders and their families. Support was also provided to enable students to return to Latin America and Chile to contribute to local development, when it was safe to do so.

We are very interested in receiving testimonies from both Chilean former award holders and also from British NGO workers, activists and academics who were involved with the Chilean exile experience so that this site can become an ever expanding testimony to a unique moment in recent Chilean and British history. We are linked to the Museum of Memory in Santiago, Chile. The Modern Record Centre at the University has also collected a valuable resource of documents relating to the World University Service programme which is open to scholars.