Should poor Oxford students have to volunteer?

I quit the ‘poor people scholarship’, also known as the University of Oxford’s Crankstart scholarship, halfway through my first year. I was only four hours into my 25 annual hours of volunteering, tediously spent peeling vegetables for a charity roast dinner – a requirement set by the university itself that I had to fulfil in order to receive my bursary – when I made my decision.

Peeling parsnip after parsnip, I felt no warm glow about giving back to the community. My more cynical side thought it seemed like those patronising skill-building exercises for the unemployed. I felt only resentment at how more privileged students at Oxford hadn’t peeled a single carrot. Why should I have to?

Crankstart was founded by venture capital billionaire Sir Michael Moritz. A Christ Church alumnus who attended a Welsh state school, he was motivated by the help his father had been given. Rescued from Nazi Germany, his dad won a place at Oxford and was able to take it up thanks to a scholarship.

Now Moritz wants to ensure that others can do the same. Moritz is worth about £3bn, thanks to savvy early investments in just about every tech giant you’ve heard of. But as well as being astonishingly rich, Moritz is also very generous: in 2012 he gave £75m to Oxford to fund these scholarships.

Oxford students with a household income of under £27,500 are invited to join. Scholars are given a bursary of up to £5,000 per year; some also receive a £3,000 reduction in tuition fees. Crankstart has a great team of staff dedicated to finding global internships and organising careers events, which is a lifesaver for those of us whose daddy can’t make a phone call to the CEO to ask a favour. There is no doubt that this is an excellent initiative for social mobility. 

But there’s also a problem. ‘Each year,’ Oxford’s website says, ‘all Crankstart Scholars are asked to complete 25 hours of volunteering work, for example by taking part in activities to encourage students to apply to Oxford, or by supporting the local community’.

Given that part-time jobs during term time are banned here, it seems a bit much. Aren’t students busy enough? 

I actually hosted Moritz at a Zoom event for my newspaper the Oxford Blue last Easter, pulling in 150 attendees including dozens of Crankstart scholars. He was entertaining and inspiring, so I even feel guilty for bashing his insanely generous scholarship.

But it needs an update. Low-income Oxford students are not unskilled lost causes crying out to be lifted from their sorry state. They don’t need to be redeemed by making sandwiches for the homeless. Let them dedicate time to internships and socialising instead of leaving them mentally drained, patronised, and alienated.