Poor Scholars and Endowed Scholars

Abstract

Students have always complained of poverty. In the Middle Ages they used standard letters drafted by professional letter writers and sent them to their parents, guardians or patrons.¹ In the twenty-first century Commonwealth scholars set up a website to make their case. At the same time students’ lives have often been privileged with their bills paid by somebody else — families, employers, institutions and scholarship agencies. Any exploration of why they did so needs to start by looking at the cost of being a student and at changes in the costs over time. Money was the fuel that drove the model of student mobility and the lubricant that helped students to travel.