STV announces eight new bursaries as partnership with RTS moves into third year
STV and the Royal Television Society (RTS) have announced this year’s recipients of their joint undergraduate bursary, which aims to broaden access to the media industry by supporting talented students from lower income backgrounds to pursue careers in television.
The bursary scheme was launched by the RTS in 2014, with STV partnering in 2019, and sees each bursary scholar being awarded funding of £1,000 for each year of their course at universities and colleges across Scotland.
Scholars are also offered a range of paid work experience placements and mentoring opportunities at STV, as well as access to networking and industry insight sessions, to help develop a stronger, more diverse pool of creative and digital talent in Scotland.
For 2021, STV is sponsoring an additional eight students on a Television Production and Broadcast Journalism bursary. The scholars are:
- Mendy Bala, Film and Television Production BA, Edinburgh
- Martin Bavlnka, Television (top-up), City of Glasgow College
- Daniela Carvalho, Journalism, The Robert Gordon University
- Deborah Dow, BA Television, Edinburgh Napier University
- William Gordon, Television (top-up) (BATV), City of Glasgow College
- David McCarrison, BA (Hons) Television, City of Glasgow College
- Martha Roseweir, Film and Television, The University of Edinburgh
- Flynn Smith, HND Creative Industries: Television, City of Glasgow College
The recipients were selected by a panel of industry professionals following an open call to students applying for courses at accredited colleges and universities. Each beneficiary of the scheme will receive free membership of the RTS while studying, with an additional year after they graduate.
Simon Pitts, STV CEO, said: “We’re proud to be entering the third year of our bursary scheme with the RTS, helping to develop the next generation of creative industry stars in Scotland. We’re passionate about skills development and look forward to supporting our talented scholars throughout their education, not only via the bursary but with valuable mentoring and work experience opportunities.”
Theresa Wise, RTS CEO, said: “The RTS has been delighted with the achievements of our scholars to date. We recruit talented students and provide them with some great opportunities to gain access to the industry and open doors – but the successes of our scholars are very much down to their own efforts, creativity, and determination. We are very grateful to the numerous people from the industry who have supported our bursary programme and alumni to date.”
To date, the RTS has invested over £1million in the scheme, awarding more than 250 bursaries in total and supporting scholars throughout their education. Donations to support the scheme from STV, All3Media, Disney and YouView have continued to enable the scheme to grow and flourish, with over 80% of the graduates from the first five years of intake working in Television or related industries.
For more information on the bursary schemes and eligibility for 2022 when open please visit: https://rts.org.uk/education-and-training-pages/bursaries
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For further information please contact: Stephen Innes at stephen.innes@stv.tv or Kirstin Stevenson at kirstin.stevenson@stv.tv