Professor Dame Mary Beard has said she hopes that new Classics bursaries for five teachers in disadvantaged areas will help pass the excitement of her subject on to their pupils.
The 67-year-old broadcaster and historian, who is a Classics fellow at Newnham College, is to retire at the end of 2022 after almost 40 years of teaching at Cambridge University.
The classicist has welcomed the five full tuition fees bursaries that are being offered to UK-based teachers and other education professionals in disadvantaged areas.
They will be able to study on a remote-access one-year part-time undergraduate course at Cambridge University’s Institute of Continuing Education, thanks to a partnership with education charity Classics For All.
Prof Beard said: “These bursaries are a really great idea.
“If we enable teachers to gain high-level expertise in Classics, they will pass that expertise – and the excitement that comes with it – on to their pupils.
“Classics is a wonderful subject for throwing light on the modern as well as the ancient world, for raising pupils’ aspirations, and for giving them (and us) the intellectual tools to confront some of the most important cultural question in the world today.
“I am absolutely delighted that Classics for All and the Institute of Continuing Education are collaborating to open up the value, challenge and fun of Classics to yet more teachers and their pupils.”
Each bursary, worth £2,500, is designed as a gateway to Classics for teachers in state-funded settings including schools, public libraries, NHS settings and prisons.
Dr James Gazzard, director of Cambridge’s Institute of Continuing Education, said: “This course is a gateway for adult students to engage, perhaps for the first time, with the classical world and the richness of its history, literature and art.
“Opening the door to the classics allows us to draw on its stories and thinking to provide new insights into our complex and changing modern world.”
Classics for All programme director Hilary Hodgson said: “Exciting opportunities like classics should be available to everyone.
“The Classics for All bursary, in partnership with the Institute of Continuing Education, will provide an invaluable opportunity for teachers to learn more about the classical world so they can in turn help to raise the aspirations of young people from all backgrounds by teaching them about the ancient world.”
The Undergraduate Certificate of Classical Studies course will start in October.
Applications for the Classics for All Bursary are invited by May 31 from educational professionals working in deprived or disadvantaged primary, secondary or adult education in state-funded sectors in the UK.
For details on the course, see: https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/course/undergraduate-certificate-classical-studiesFor details on the bursaries, see: https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/bursaries/bursaries-and-concessions-available
