The Lady Monica Cockfield Memorial Trust

The Lady Monica Cockfield Memorial Trust has supported the students and staff of the School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology at the University of Salford for many years through the creation of life-changing scholarships and the support of compelling projects.

Journalism Awards

Journalism Awards logo 2021

With the support of The Lady Monica Cockfield Memorial Trust, our annual Journalism Awards recognise and celebrate the talented students at Salford, showcasing their work through fourteen awards, including Feature Writer of the Year, Sports Journalist of the Year, and Photojournalist of the Year.

The generosity of the Trust continues to bring the ceremony to life, funding everything from venue hire to catering to the engraving of awards. In recognition of their support, we present the Eddie Lowey Award to the ‘Journalist of the Year’, the student who has done the most to raise the reputation of journalism during their time at Salford.

Some of our Eddie Lowey Award recipients:

Matthew, 2019

Nikola, 2018

Abigail & Nathan, 2017

Bradley, 2016

Emilia, 2015

Journalism Scholarship

The Lady Monica Cockfield Memorial Trust also gift scholarships to students completing an undergraduate Journalism degree at Salford.

Journalism is a competitive industry and the scholarships instil our students with a sense of pride and the confidence they need to thrive and achieve their potential. The scholarships are designed to reward excellence and help to ease the financial burdens students experience – such as travel, childcare, and technology – enabling them to focus on their studies and partake in extracurricular activities to enhance their employability.

European Studies Scholarship

The Lady Monica Cockfield Memorial Trust European Studies Scholarship enables a student from a low-income background in Salford or the North West to study a 3-year PhD in European Studies or a related focus.

The award not only covers the academic fees for the PhD but provides the recipient with a small annual maintenance bursary to help alleviate the financial burden of postgraduate study.

Mike Cubbin portrait

Mike was the first recipient of The Lady Monica Cockfield Memorial Trust European Studies Scholarship, fulfilling his ambition to return to Salford to study for his PhD in Contemporary History. 

Mike said: "It is difficult to express my thanks for the funding that the Trust gave me. Without it, I would not have been able to enjoy four years of testing myself and pushing my brain that little bit further .... If the Trust’s aim is to enable people to follow dreams and make the most of their potential, then I am certainly proof that those aims have been achieved."

We are delighted to announce that Mike completed his PhD, entitled ‘A Standard European Tank? Technology Transfer and the Quest since 1945 for a Joint International Main Battle Tank within Europe and NATO’.

Emma, the latest recipient of The Lady Monica Cockfield Memorial Trust European Studies Scholarship, is studying for a PhD which explores security during and after World War II in Britain through a secret government body, the Security Executive.

On receiving the scholarship, Emma said: "I was thrilled to learn I had been selected to receive this generous award .... Thanks to your support, I am able to play what I believe will be a key role in filling this academic vacuum, sharing my findings in various ways and teaching others with the aim of helping to cultivate future researchers."

Graduate Arts Scholarship

Salford’s School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology run a Graduate Scholarship Programme to provide recent graduates with the opportunity to develop their skillset and professional experience in the North West.

Our Graduate Scholarship Programme runs for 12 months, and successful applicants receive financial bursaries, mentoring and access to resources, such as studio space and professional equipment, through one of our industry partners, including Castlefield Gallery, ArtWork Atelier, and Irwell House Studios.

The Lady Monica Cockfield Memorial Trust Graduate Arts Scholarship is part of this Programme, providing financial support to a graduate so that they are able to focus on developing their knowledge and experiment with their creative practice in a safe space.

BA (Hons) Visual Arts graduate and sculptor, Katie, was the inaugural recipient of the Scholarship and became a member of the studio collective at Paradise Works where she was able to network and collaborate with fellow artists and received mentoring from a fellow sculptor.

Katie also had the opportunity to take part in the ‘A Work of Art!’ exhibition in London and the ‘UKYA City Takeover: Nottingham’ whilst also experiencing the curation of gallery shows and attending preview nights. Overall, she said the programme “really helped me to grow as an artist, both in confidence and career".

A further two graduates from Salford have received this scholarship and we’re excited to update you on their progress in the future.

Styal Prison Project

The Styal Prison Project is a special initiative led by Salford lecturers, Sara Eyre and Kate Feld, and journalism students to help female inmates write and produce their own in-house magazine, Off The Cuff

With thanks to the generosity of The Lady Monica Cockfield Memorial Trust, we are able to fund and facilitate this unique, collaborative programme which allows both the women and students to learn from one another, develop their journalism skills and explore the possibilities of a future career. 

As part of the programme, the team run several workshops with a focus on journalism and life writing, providing the female inmates with an opportunity to experiment with their writing and explore the idea of furthering their education.

See what some of our students had to say about participating in the project below:

Tony

writing

BA (Hons) Journalism - now delivered as BA (Hons) Journalism (Broadcast) and BA (Hons) Journalism (Multimedia)

"I believe that this is a valuable creative diversion for the ladies in Styal. It gives them focus to explore more innovative ways of spending their time and [the] confidence to go further in that endeavour. My favourite example is of the natural gift some of the inmates have for poetry and storytelling, a gift which must be encouraged and nurtured."

Sara

A person writes at a desk

BA (Hons) Journalism with English 

"Working with the women at Styal Prison was an incredibly enriching experience for me. Whilst it is clearly important and constructive for the women at Styal to have encouragement and support in their ongoing development and rehabilitation, I also felt that the time I spent working with the women at Styal and developing articles for their magazine was invaluable to me."

We would like to thank The Lady Monica Cockfield Memorial Trust for their generosity has provided many of our students with incredible experiences over the years, each of which has had a profound impact on their time at Salford.