Clyde Higgs Scholarships
Award value: £8,000
Courses: MSc Food Security, MSc Environmental Bioscience in a Changing Climate and MSc Sustainable Crop Production: Agronomy for the 21st Century
Deadline: 1st June 2024
Eligibility: This scholarship is available to British nationals only.
Thanks to the considerable generosity of the Elizabeth Creak Charitable Trust, up to four Clyde Higgs Scholarships, each worth £8,000, are available to British nationals for the School of Life Sciences postgraduate courses MSc Sustainable Crop Production: Agronomy for the 21st Century, MSc Environmental Bioscience in a Changing Climate and MSc Food Security studying in academic year 2024/25. The scholarship is awarded as a reduction in course fees.
The scholarships are to support students interested in pursuing a career in the agri-food and environment sectors.
The principle aim of the Elizabeth Creak Charitable Trust is to provide support and encourage new blood in farming through education and other means and finance projects to help agriculture succeed and ultimately thrive in a challenging environment.
The School of Life Sciences has relationships with a number of companies and agricultural organisations that participate in lectures and seminar programmes, and which may offer placements for our MSc students.
Please contact msc.lifesciences@warwick.ac.uk if you would like to arrange to discuss the scholarship informally with Professor Rosemary Collier.
Eligibility
To apply for a Clyde Higgs Scholarship you must:
- Be a UK national
- Hold an offer to study our MSc Environmental Bioscience in a Changing Climate, MSc Sustainable Crop Production: Agronomy for the 21st Century or MSc Food Security in the academic year 2024/2025
Successful applicants will be required to meet the Trustees from time to time and give a short presentation on their research project or placement in the summer term.
How to apply
Please apply onlineLink opens in a new window.
You will need to provide contact details, upload a brief CV and write statements to explain:
- Why you have chosen to study your particular course (maximum 300 words)
- How the receipt of this award would make a difference to you (maximum 300 words)
- What your aspirations are in terms of your future career and how this relates to the future success of the farming/food production/environment sector (maximum 300 words).
Applicants will be short-listed and those on the short-list will be asked to take part in a telephone or video call interview. Applicants will be informed in writing of the outcome, whether successful or unsuccessful, once a decision has been made.
The Elizabeth Creak Charitable Trust
Elizabeth Creak was born in Slough in 1926. She attended McGill University in Canada before working for Allen Lane at Penguin Books in both the UK and latterly America, where she helped to establish their new venture. She returned to the UK to eventually work with her uncle, Clyde Higgs, who by then had built up a thriving two thousand acre dairy farm in Warwickshire. Prior to this, Clyde had also developed a four thousand acre farm in the foothills of Mount Kilamanjaro and held a number of other positions including: Managing Director of English Farms in Wiltshire; Agricultural correspondent of the BBC and Council Member of the Royal Agricultural Society. Clyde was a highly innovative and enterprising farmer who was well known for challenging the status quo and cross-fertilising best practices among farmers in the UK and around the world. His practical approach and constant quest for efficiency, gained at the family’s electric motor business, helped him to significantly increase output across his farms. He clearly recognised a similar passion and ability in Elizabeth and mentored her to become his successor.
In 1963 Elizabeth inherited Clyde’s farm in Warwickshire and ran it with great success for a number of years. She was a highly capable and well respected farmer and brought many creative ideas to the world of farming. She eventually sold the bulk of the business, but maintained a substantial acreage around Stratford. Elizabeth’s business acumen, determination and integrity were the reasons she was invited on to the boards of many local charitable organisations including the Royal Agricultural Society, the Stoneleigh Abbey Trust and the Stratford Society. She was the first female chairman of the Warwickshire branch of the NFU and in 1998 she became the first woman to hold the office of High Sheriff of Warwickshire. She was also a keen supporter of local craftsmen, artists and the theatre.
Elizabeth passed away in October 2013 and left the bulk of her estate to the Elizabeth Creak Charitable Trust. Elizabeth created the Trust to provide ‘Clyde Higgs Scholarships’ in agriculture; support and encourage new blood in farming and finance projects to help farmers survive and ultimately thrive in their challenging modern environment.