Here's Why Cambridge Graduates Say The Stormzy Scholarship Matters

    "I got the grades, I did well in the interview, so why did I feel like I was an impostor in a university that had accepted me?"

    It's A-level results day, and in case you hadn't heard already, Stormzy announced he's set up a scholarship fund to help financially support black students who are accepted to the University of Cambridge.

    The Stormzy Scholarship will pay tuition fees and maintenance for two students who make the grades for the elite institution, which has come under fire for its lack of racial diversity.

    Some people absoutely loved it.

    Super inspirational example set by Stormzy on @BBCNews talking about the 'Stormzy scholarship' at Cambridge University. Young people, paving the way for young people. Love it. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 #ThursdayThoughts #EducationMatters #alevelresults2018 #changemakers #inspirational

    But others said it was "shameful" that launching a scholarship was necessary.

    This is brilliant but the fact that Stormzy has to do this to get more black students “accepted” is flipping shameful. This is great, but if Cambridge actually accepted a decent quota of black students he wouldn’t need to do this. https://t.co/3IgPWPHj3u

    The university was heavily criticised this year after it emerged that six of its 29 undergraduate colleges admitted fewer than 10 black or mixed-race students between 2012 and 2016.

    Last year, black male students posed for an epic group picture, which they hoped would inspire other black men to apply.

    Facebook: cambridge.acs

    One student told BuzzFeed News last year that she had been challenged about how she got into Cambridge, and in June, a top academic declared she would stop supervising students, alleging years of racial profiling by the institution's porters.

    Recent history graduate Chelsea Kwakye, 21, worked on the Stormzy scholarship launch. She told BuzzFeed News that while a lot more needs to be done to get black students into Cambridge, Stormzy's scheme will help potential applicants visualise themselves there.

    She coordinated getting black students from all parts of the university to take part in a video for the launch of Stormzy's scholarship.

    What a morning! The launch of the Stormzy scholarship on #alevelresultsday2018 . See behind-the-scenes when he met our students: #GoingToCambridge https://t.co/AIqocrBw64 https://t.co/USQh2IBaye

    "[Stormzy] has been fantastic to do this. But there is the wider question of why do we still, in 2018, need a scholarship and somebody in our community to sponsor black students to get into university?" she said.

    As the only black woman in her university year group, she found it hard to adjust in her first few terms and sometimes struggled to find the confidence to contribute in lectures. But towards the end, as vice president of the African Caribbean Society, her outlook changed.

    "In second year and third year I enjoyed it so much, but that was because I had [learned] to be confident in myself, that I was good enough to be there, that I really deserved my place there and nobody could tell me any different. Because I got the grades, I did well in the interview, so why did I feel like I was an imposter in a university that had accepted me?"

    She said that the university needs to speak to its students more and assess the gap between the number of black students who get interviews and the number who receive offers.

    "Why do they falter at that point? Is it the way that they talk, or the way they dress when they come to the interview? It's maybe not what your interviewer is expecting."

    Kwakye said that schools underpredicting the grades of black students and not encouraging them to apply has a "huge impact".

    "I remember I was told I couldn't apply to Oxford because another girl was applying there... I left thinking, 'Oh, I'm probably not good enough for Oxford', as opposed to 'No, I really do want to apply.' I was told I couldn't."

    Patrick Marché, 28, a Cambridge graduate who cohosts the Over the Bridge podcast with three other black Cambridge graduates, said he didn't recognise his potential until he got his mock GCSE results.

    Marché, who graduated with a degree in Spanish and Portuguese literature in 2013, praised the scholarship as the first to recognise the underrepresentation of black students.

    Love this. So many students are put off from applying to university because of their lack of finances! Some of our cast wouldn’t have made it through without Bursary support. https://t.co/jMaMgaIMBM

    "There aren't any shortages of grants, scholarships, and financial support at Cambridge," he said. "The fact that a scholarship exists now for black students is recognition of the fact that actually, because we're underrepresented, we still do need to have that support.

    "While we do all face similar challenges academically, on a personal and sociological level, it is still very different for black students. As far as having a scholarship to support black kids, especially black kids from poorer backgrounds, it's so important that we stop worrying about whether [Stormzy] should be doing this for anybody else.

    "As far as I'm concerned, Stormzy's a young black guy, and if he feels that he should be supporting people that look like him, who have had similar upbringings to him, all the more for it."

    Meanwhile, some black students who achieved their offer grades for Cambridge have been celebrating on Twitter.

    I FUCKING GOT INTO CAMBRIDGE!!! IVE BEEN SHAKING FOR THE PAST 10 MINS #ALevelResults2018

    Well done to Mohamed! He has got into @Cambridge_Uni to read engineering with A*A*A*A*. What a fantastic achievement. #resultsday2018 #alevelresults2018 #Congratulations https://t.co/aHajgccgK1

    THERE'S NOBODY LIKE YOU LORD!!! To think that exactly last year today, I was telling myself that I didn't need to apply 😅😅 #alevelresults2018 #BlackExcellence #ALevelResults #alevelresultsday2018 https://t.co/Y5hO0tFe4m

    Huge congrats Tia on achieving A*A*A* and securing your place to study Architecture at Cambridge university