By Theresa Garner
Three Auckland high school students a year will avoid leaving university with a mountain of debt thanks to a new tertiary education scholarship.
Schools will nominate students for the three inaugural Elliot scholarships, worth $20,000 each.
Set up by the Sir George Elliot Charitable Trust, the scholarships are the largest
of their type in New Zealand.
They are open to any student in the Auckland region starting a first degree, and will be paid over three or four years of study.
Trustee Stuart Middleton hoped the yearly scholarships would become as sought after and prestigious as the Rhodes scholarship, awarded for study at Oxford University.
He said Elliot scholars could study at any approved tertiary institution.
Applicants must be likely to succeed, show academic ability, leadership, potential to contribute to the community, and also have a clear need for financial support.
"The costs of a tertiary education are rising steeply, and every time they rise, it eliminates yet another group of young people from going to university. Or they have to commit to huge levels of debt."
Mr Middleton said scholarships promoted by corporate groups asked students to do something for their money.
"With ours, there are no strings attached other than being successful."
The trust, set up in 1956 after the death of Sir George, a businessman and philanthropist, had traditionally supported bricks-and-mortar projects such as hospitals.
Sir George was committed to education and was president of the 1912 Auckland Exhibition, which gave the Domain the Wintergarden.
