Accommodation Scholarships for Glass Students

News Release

20 January 2012
Accommodation Scholarships for Glass Students

The opportunity to study glass in Wanganui has become even more attractive with Mayoral Accommodation Scholarships offering free accommodation for five 2012 first year Diploma in Glass Design and Production students at the Wanganui Glass School.

Mayor Annette Main, with the assistance of UCOL, is offering Mayoral Accommodation Scholarships for 2012 to encourage people to study glass art, design and production in Wanganui. All new first year glass diploma students are eligible for one of five individual rooms situated in one of UCOL’s student flats in Wicksteed Street. The accommodation is self-contained, with individual private bedrooms and shared lounge/dining/kitchen facilities and bathroom amenities. The flat also includes a laundry. They are close to the Wanganui Glass School at UCOL’s Quay School of the Arts campus and only a short walk to the main retail area of town.

Each of the five Scholarships is valued at $120 per week and lasts throughout the lucky recipients’ 2012 study in the programme. Details of the Whanganui UCOL student flats can be found on UCOL’s website http://www.ucol.ac.nz/about/support/financial/Pages/WhanganuiScholarships.aspx.

Mayor Annette believes the unique opportunity to study glass art and design in Wanganui should be available to as many people as possible. “The costs of tertiary study and living away from home can be a significant barrier to study. The accommodation scholarship initiative is one way of encouraging people to give it a go by reducing their financial pressures in the first year of study.”

Glass art, design and production are now an established feature of Wanganui’s artistic and cultural scene and its development is important to the local economy. The glass programme often attracts interest from overseas, as well as locally and throughout New Zealand. Many graduates of the glass programme have studios in Wanganui with many showing their work in exhibitions, distinguished galleries and other outlets.

Eight people have currently expressed interest in the glass diploma in 2012, with two of these being from overseas. “Wanganui is the only place in New Zealand where you can study hot glass techniques like this, it is a very specialized course. Hopefully the offer of an accommodation scholarship will make entry to the course even more attractive and I look forward to welcoming the new glass students to Wanganui. I know they will have a fantastic time living and studying here. ”

The Wanganui District Council and UCOL remain committed to their partnership in the glass school, and are always looking for ways to make the glass courses more popular.

All students who are fully enrolled into Year One of UCOL’s Diploma in Glass Design and Production by 12 February 2012 will be eligible for one of the five Scholarships. The five recipients will be drawn by ballot by Mayor Annette Main.

ENDS