The Alumni and Friends Fund was created to support the wonderful work of our staff and students to improve facilities at the University and enhance the student experience. Thanks to the generosity of our supporter community, we have been able to provide financial assistance to eight different projects, each one shining a light on the importance of the strong philanthropic spirit of our alumni and friends. Hear about the various projects and see how your donations have impacted life at the University by reading below.
SubAqua
Starting last year, Liverpool Sub-Aqua club (LUSAC) has an ongoing project of replacing 15 of their Buoyancy Controlled Devices (BCDs) as they are second-hand, mismatched and ageing, and are becoming a safety hazard to those in the club. With the Alumni and Friends Fund Grant this year, LUSAC aims to purchase 5 new BCDs. Along with the 5 they secured last year; they are on track to replacing their target of 15.
“LUSAC would like to thank everyone who supports the Alumni and Friends Fund as without your generosity we would not be able to purchase these new BCDs. This will undoubtedly have a profound impact for our club enabling us to carry on providing students with safe diving experience.”
Boat Club
This project involves the women’s squad of Liverpool University’s Boat Club purchasing a new set of 8 oars for the top women’s boat, a boat that has recently been excelling at national competitions.
“We are eternally grateful that you accepted our application, it will make such a difference to the women’s squad! It’s always worth trying! I wasn’t sure we would be successful but now the next years at my club will have top-notch equipment because I applied!”
Careers Impact Day at the Everyman and Playhouse
This project aims to help students in the English department gain a greater awareness and clearer understanding of the potential careers available to them in creative industries, specifically theatre. It is also aimed at overcoming some of the barriers that young people identify to accessing cultural spaces for leisure, education and employment, and increasing their confidence in accessing and using these spaces.
“Thank you for giving our students the opportunity to have this cultural and educative event that will have impact during and beyond their studies. Funding can help you to realise ambitions and turn aspiration into reality.”
Learning from racial integration in Liverpool
This project brings together students from the University of Liverpool with local communities in Chinatown by designing a set of artefacts to show a history of racial dynamics in Liverpool. The lead on the project proposed to involve students in designing a set of artefacts that can be easily installed or stored (both indoors and outdoors) to showcase a history of diversity, focusing on the development of Chinatown in Liverpool.
“Thank you very much for your kind and generous support!”
University of Liverpool Motorsport Society
The University of Liverpool Motorsport (ULM) are a team of 25 3rd and 4th year mechanical and industrial engineers, all representing The University of Liverpool in a global Formula Student competition. Formula Student UK is an international competition in which top engineering students design, build and race a single seater racing car. The competition enables students to demonstrate their engineering design and manufacturing skills and helps them gain valuable engineering experience for life after university.
“On behalf of everyone at The Liverpool of Liverpool Motorsport (ULM), I want to express our deepest gratitude for your generous donation to our team. Your support means a lot to us and will have a profound impact on not only our success but also the success of future ULM generations. The grant provides us students with numerous opportunities that would not be possible without your contributions. We recognise the significance in enabling these opportunities, so we assure you that your investment in our team will be appreciated with hard work and dedication while representing our institution in front of hundreds of universities at competitions. Once again, thank you for your generosity and we look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the year.”
Flight Simulation Group
This project aimed to follow on from last year's successful Boeing 737 simulator project, funded by the Alumni and Friends Fund grant. This year the aim is to revitalise the JetSim, a Jetstream 41 turboprop flight simulator, bringing it back to the forefront of simulator technology and facilitating use by students across campus, schools’ outreach events hosted by the student-run society “Flight Sim Group” in the School of Engineering, and for use to enhance teaching on the Aerospace Engineering with Pilot Studies degree programmes.
“All of us here at the Flight Sim Group would like the thank the Alumni and Friends Fund supporters for their selfless contributions. For FSG it has been a vital lifeline, without your support we wouldn’t be able to operate such a unique student activity; no other UK university has anything quite like it. We would also like to thank the supporters for their greater impact across the university, so many amazing projects university wide that would have stopped in their tracks if it was not for the funding of the Alumni and Friends Fund.”
Karate Club
The Karate club applied to the Alumni and Friends Fund to replace their old training equipment, which isn’t in good condition. This often means that they must carry on their activities without it or limit the exercises and training activities they can do, to avoid possible injuries due to the lack of appropriate equipment. Thanks to the grant, they can purchase essential items such as shin guards, gloves, mitts, etc. which will allow members of the club to train for competitions, increasing their confidence whilst competing and helping members improve their skills and understand how they can apply karate techniques in a real-life situation.
“Thank you very much for your generous support, we really appreciate it. This funding will benefit everyone in the club and anyone who is interested in exploring karate. This equipment will make the training more fun and engaging and help take our members’ (and future students’) skills to the next level.”
Beckett Festival Unbound 2024
The Institute of Irish Studies hosted Beckett Unbound in Liverpool in early summer 2024, a Festival dedicated to Irish-French writer Samuel Beckett which will inspire and provide creative opportunities for local communities across a varied and vibrant programme of theatre, music, film, dance and discussion.
The funding from the University of Liverpool's Alumni and Friends Fund was given to fund student ambassadors, and through this offer students the opportunity to work directly on the festival in a number of different ways, supporting communications, chronicling and recording the festival, working on social media, blogging and podcasting, working with the audiences attending the various events, and engaging with schools around promotional activity.
The creative impetus behind the project is a desire to bring the work of one of Ireland’s most internationally well-known, provocative writers to Liverpool audiences with a view to inspiring and enabling local communities to engage in the arts and explore the themes within Beckett’s work for themselves. As this is our second iteration, Beckett: Unbound 2024 will galvanise efforts to establish the Festival as a Biennial event going forward, putting Liverpool and the University on the map for Beckett audiences worldwide.
“On behalf of the Institute of Irish Studies, I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the Alumni and Friends Fund supporters who have made this student ambassador scheme possible through their generous support. There is no doubt that the Beckett Unbound Festival will be both strengthened and enhanced as a result of this initiative, which will also be of both personal and professional benefit to the students involved.”
Thank you once again to our supporter community who allow projects like these to take place, and we look forward to providing further updates on how everyone is getting on later in the year!
To find out how you can provide support to Liverpool students, please visit the Student Fund webpage