Bursaries

Means to an end

Public benefit requirements are forcing charitable independent schools to consider introducing or expanding scholarships and bursaries. This actually provides compelling marketing opportunities, argues Stephen Martin-Scott

For the independent school sector, the Chinese adage “We live in interesting times” was re-written on March 7, with the publication of the Charity Commission’s draft guidance on satisfying “public benefit”.

Independent schools provide approximately £5 in irrecoverable VAT and bursaries for every £1 of benefit received as a result of their charitable status. And this is before the argument that the Government – and its long-suffering tax-payers – save £2 billion a year by not requiring the state to educate that 7 per cent of the school-age population catered for by the sector.

But now life has got harder. For not only do governors have to report how their school delivered public benefit, they also have to say how they have benefited people on less than 60 per cent of the average income.

New perspectives
This change encourages senior management in schools to look again at an aspect of independent education that has long been under-exploited for marketing: scholarships and bursaries.

It is only in recent years that schools have begun to reconsider their provision and presentation. There has been a lack of clarity in delineating scholarships and bursaries, and the concept of means-testing. While it is obvious that the former relates to proven or potential academic ability, and the latter to a different kind of ability – that of being able or not to pay fees – the waters have often been muddied.

Some years ago, I was talking with an HMC head, overlooking the playing fields in front of his main school building. As we spoke, a Range Rover appeared in view. “That’s our Commemoration Scholar”, he said. “And that’s her own Range Rover, not her parents’.” It pointed up starkly how inappropriate was the principle of attaching money to scholarships without there also being need. The parents clearly did not need the financial support, but were pleased to have the girl’s academic potential acknowledged in a public way. That was all that was required. It is critical for schools to review their scholarship offerings and make every one means-tested.

As well as following a moral – and now legal – imperative, it also provides schools with a valuable marketing opportunity. If the premise of the wealthy regarding recognition as greater than any potential accompanying funding is accepted, then there are opportunities to “brand” scholarships.

Not every school has the Wests’ Gift for Children, a fund at Christ’s Hospital that goes back to the end of the 1600s and is of incontestable pedigree and generosity. Yet that should not deny a branding opportunity to younger schools. Whether there is a fund to attach to a particular name of an award is not as important as its presentation.

Naming awards after the most recent headmaster or the most famous past pupil – something that connects positively with the school – is all that is required. With relative ease, two non means-tested 100 per cent scholarships can be redefined as four or five “branded” scholarships that are means-assessed, each with a specific class of recipient in mind: academic, music, sport. And bearing the public benefit in mind, it would be a good idea for one of those awards to be for a post-GCSE state sector pupil, even if in some years this consumes a significant percentage of a school’s bursary resources.

Good neighbours
Over the last five or six years, there has been a growing involvement of independent schools with their state neighbours. When the current Government came to power, this interaction was more formally encouraged and many schools have been keen to be involved. This is a readily calculable way to meet the charity criteria, which can be promoted widely through press releases.

Every school should undertake a review of their current practices, to discuss and agree their objectives and then to develop a marketing-led strategy to deliver against those objectives. This strategy will maximise benefit for the positive external perception of the school.

Stephen Martin-Scott is managing partner of The School Marketing Partnership. Stephen can be contacted on 01823 334560 or by email through www.schoolsmarketing.com. 

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