This was Kirsty Taylor’s position when she was halfway through her Psychology and Mental Health course with the Open University. Her plan had always been to continue to work at the Institute of Naval Medicine when she left the Royal Navy – scheduled for 2025 – but to do so as a civilian, with a focus on Human Factors training and stress management techniques. She already volunteered for Give Us a Shout, providing crisis support management in any spare time she had, and it was this area of work she was interested in. But before that there was the small matter of finding the funds to pay for the next three years of her course.
Without the support of Greenwich Hospital, I would never have been able to continue.
Kirsty researched potential funders. The first she approached came to nothing but she then came across Greenwich Hospital and noted the “other bursaries” available through its education support. Bursary awards of £2,000 a year for three years seemed the perfect fit, so she began to make enquiries.
"The actual application process was really straightforward. The LDO Officer I was put in contact with kept in touch with me throughout, helping me out. And the phone call came through in June telling me my application had been successful for the coming year (OU academic years start in October)."
Kirsty has no doubt that the bursary has kept her dreams afloat.
The grant details
Working with the Royal Navy’s Learning and Development Organisation (LDO), Greenwich Hospital supports around 33 Ratings (usually Leading Hands and Able Rates) in any one year with a bursary towards the costs of a degree or access course. Each year, we offer bursaries towards nine degrees and three access courses. The bursary is for tuition fees and worth £2,000 a year for up to nine academic years of study: the maximum one applicant can receive is £12,000.
Greenwich Hospital Impact Report 2023