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The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment launches Promise scholarships to diversify sector
11 November 2019
UCL’s Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment today launches The Bartlett Promise to offer scholarships worth a total of £1.2 million per year to students from under-represented backgrounds.
The Bartlett Promise is a long-term project to attract students from a broader range of backgrounds to tackle the lack of diversity in the sector.
The scholarships are the first stage in the Promise project, and will cover students’ fees, living and study costs for the duration of their degree. For the first year of the Promise, the scholarships are open to students from the UK and EU countries applying to undergraduate degrees in The Bartlett School of Architecture, School of Planning and School of Construction and Project Management.
Recipients will also receive mentoring, personal support and careers advice throughout their studies. Over the next few years, The Promise scholarships will grow to cover all schools and departments of The Bartlett at all levels of study including international applicants.
Tackling a lack of diversity within the built environment
According to data compiled in 2019 by the Royal Town Planning Institute from the Office for National Statistics’ Annual Population Survey, 59% of planners, 75% of architects and 87% of chartered surveyors are male.
Practitioners from a BAME background make up 3-4% of planning professionals, 9% of architects and 4% of chartered surveyors, even though UK Census data from 2011 shows that 14% of the UK population identifies as coming from a minority ethnic background.
Professor Christoph Lindner, Dean of The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, said:
To qualify for a scholarship, applicants must have a low household income, but The Bartlett will also look at other criteria, and expects applicants to meet several of them – these criteria include being an ethnic minority, being a care leaver, having been eligible for free school meals, having a disability, living in a neighbourhood that is among the 20% most deprived with a low progression rate to higher education, based on data from the Office for Students’ Participation of Local Areas (POLAR).
Dr. Kamna Patel, Vice-Dean Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at The Bartlett, commented:
The scholarship will initially be open to students applying for nine of The Bartlett’s undergraduate courses. In the first pilot year, up to 10 places will be offered, with this increasing following further funding to 10% of the student population over the following 10 years.
Professor Sir Michael Arthur, UCL President & Provost, said:
The Bartlett will introduce further initiatives over the next 10 years as part of The Promise, including new efforts to continue diversifying staff and provide staff training on unconscious bias, leading on diversity, awareness training for inclusion and bespoke training that will be designed in house specifically for The Bartlett Promise.
The Barlett’s centenary year
The Bartlett Promise is part of Bartlett 100, a year-long celebration of the centenary of the naming of Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment.
2019 marks 100 years since Sir Herbert Henry Bartlett, a civil engineer and building contractor, consented to the department being renamed in his honour at UCL after he founded chairs in the School of Architecture and the School of Planning.
Today, The Bartlett is a globally-active faculty that brings together 12 Schools and Institutes that train new professionals for careers in the built environment, studies the global impact of their activity and sets the agenda for the future development of the sector.