The partnership between The Cross Trust and The Robertson Trust’s Journey to Success programme will maximise the impact on education and development opportunities for young people in Scotland.
Managed in-house, The Robertson Trust’s Journey to Success programme improves access, retention and graduate outcomes for under-represented young people in higher education.
The Cross Trust has continued to support students who are part-way through their course through to the point of winding up, with The Robertson Trust taking on 22 of The Cross Trust students for a sub-group of new starts in 2024/25. Going forward, The Robertson Trust will now attach the name of The Cross Trust to a set number of Robertson Trust scholars each year at least until 2028/29.
This will enable The Cross Trust name to continue, ensuring the remaining funds from The Cross Trust are transferred to a charity with a significant overlap in charitable aims and educational activity, to ensure students facing barriers to entering and succeeding in higher education can receive the financial and wider support to help them to do so.
The Cross Trust scholars will be recruited through the same application and assessment processes as used by The Robertson Trust’s Scholarship programme as a whole. For more information on the application process, please see here.
Dougal Philip, Chair of The Cross Trust, said: “It is both with a heavy heart but also excitement for the future that the Trustees of the Cross Trust are handing over our assets to The Robertson Trust. A dedicated team of long serving Trustees has been helping young men and women for over 80 years, keeping alive the wishes of our founder- Sir Alexander Cross-, but we are very excited to be entering a new chapter in the history of The Cross Trust having found such a perfect home for our assets to be used so effectively to help young men and women for the future.”
Mark Batho, Chair of The Robertson Trust, said: “The Robertson Trust is delighted to become stewards of The Cross Trust’s funds. We share their commitment to enabling young people facing barriers to participate in higher and flourish in higher education and as a result boost their life chances. It is a privilege to have earned the confidence of a fellow funder as it reaches the difficult point of wind-down. We will maintain The Cross Trust name within our wider Scholarship programme, having welcomed the first group of students in September of this year, and we will do all we can to honour Sir Alexander Cross’s vision.”
For more information, please contact The Robertson Trust’s Communications team: TRTComms@therobertsontrust.org.uk.