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Stormzy to fund Cambridge University scholarship for black students

“It’s so important for black students, especially, to be aware that it can 100% be an option to attend a university of this calibre”

Stormzy has announced that he will provide funding for two black British students to attend University of Cambridge.

Making the announcement this week – on A-levels results day, no less – at his old south London school, Harris City Academy, the MC revealed that he will be providing tuition fees and a maintenance grant for up to four years of an undergraduate course for two students starting this year and for two more starting in 2019.

“It's so important for black students, especially, to be aware that it can 100% be an option to attend a university of this calibre," Stormzy told BBC Radio Radio 1 Newsbeat in an interview about the scholarship. “In school and college I had the ability and was almost destined to go to one of the top universities.”

"But that didn't happen for myself,” he added. “So hopefully there's another young black student out there that can have that opportunity through my scholarship. I always said that there's a whole bunch of academically brilliant, excellent students who also need an incentive."

This heartening news comes not long after Cambridge University faced criticism for admitting a remarkably low number of students from BAME backgrounds, with only 58 black students being enrolling in underground courses in 2017.

"We're going to have young black students who are academically brilliant and smashing it,” Stormzy said. “And they should just have that opportunity to walk into a university like Cambridge."

Applications for Stormzy’s scholarship close on 30th August.

The scholarship finds the London grime phenomenon continuing to provide avenues of education and opportunity for young people, having last month launched his publishing imprint #Merky Books. The Penguin Random House associated imprint will be used to create “a platform for young writers to become published authors”, said Stormzy at the time.

You can watch a video of Stormzy giving a talk and performing at Oxford university below.