The Brian Large Bursary Fund Registered Charity No 328747
Report for the period 6 April 2022 to 5 April 2023
The Brian Large Bursary Fund was established in 1990 in memory of Brian Large, a leading transport planner, who died in 1989.
Statement of the Fund’s Purpose
The advancement of the education of the public and in particular the promotion and encouragement of teaching and research in the field of transportation studies at universities in the United Kingdom.
Administration
Trustees: Nicholas M Dybeck Dougie McDonald Martin G Richards OBE Michael Roberts. Administrator: Martin Richards OBE Address: The Old School House, Coldharbour, Dorking, Surrey, RH5 6HF.
Accounts prepared by: Nicholas Dybeck. Accounts checked by: Michael Roberts.
The Trustees meet from time to time to consider the Fund's investment portfolio, to decide on the amount and type of awards to be made available, and to make decisions on applications received.
Report for 2022-2023
Trustees
There was no change in Trustees during the year.
Accounts
Total receipts during the year amounted to £41,328, including the sale of investments.
A total of £37,500 was disbursed in the form of bursaries paid during the period, and £1,000 was paid to the winner of the 2022 Voorhees-Large Prize. Operating expenses were £241.
Our total assets at 05 April 2022 were £1,043,568 (investments: £1,031,196; cash at bank: £12,372). Our total assets at 05 April 2023 were £894,743 (investments: £878,784; cash at bank: £15,959). This decline is due to a fall in value of some of our investments, particularly one of our equities based funds.
The Brian Large Bursary Fund Annual Report 2022/23
Reserves Policy
The established policy of the Trustees is to award bursaries to an annual value in line with the Trust’s cash resources, augmented from time to time by a part of any increase in the capital value of the Trust’s funds beyond that required to maintain their value in real terms. Accordingly, the Trustees consider that as there are no circumstances in which a reserve would be required to meet the Fund’s obligations there is no need for them to maintain a separate reserve.
Risk Management
The Trustees have reviewed the major risks to which the Fund might be exposed and are satisfied that their procedures mitigate them.
Web Site
The Trust has a web site, www.blbf.co.uk, to provide information about the Fund for potential beneficiaries, universities and other interested parties.
Data Privacy
The Trust has a Data Privacy policy, available at www.blbf.co.uk/gdpr-policy
Safeguarding
The Trust has a Safeguarding policy.
Distribution of Funds
Funds are mainly distributed by means of bursaries awarded annually to students undertaking a taught Masters course in transport at universities in the United Kingdom. In addition, the Fund awards an annual Voorhees-Large Prize to a transport Masters graduate.
The Trustees regularly review their procedures for the awards they make, seeking to ensure the funds are providing the intended benefits. The Trustees confirm that in doing this and in making awards they have referred to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit.
Information on the bursaries and the Voorhees-Large Prize is disseminated to an e-mail list, maintained by the Fund’s Administrator, of contacts within UK Universities offering a full time Masters course in Transport. Within the universities, the Trustees rely on course administrators to make their prospective students aware of the existence of the bursary funds.
Bursaries
From its inception, the Trust's purpose has been served through the award of Publication, Travel and Masters Bursaries of varying levels. Since 2000, the Trustees have focussed their funds on providing Bursaries to support UK residents studying full-time for a taught Masters in transport at a UK university. The Trust’s Bursaries are intended to provide funding to students who would not otherwise be able to commit to a full time Masters course in transport without the need to spend a substantial amount of time in paid work.
Bursaries are awarded by the Trustees only to students who have been recommended by the university of their choice. The Trustees’ decisions are based solely on the merits of each applicant, as assessed from the information they and their sponsoring university have provided on the Fund’s application documents. This includes the benefit they are likely to
The Brian Large Bursary Fund Annual Report 2022/23
receive from completing a transport Masters course and their potential contribution, after graduation, to the profession and work of transport planning.
In order to comply with the Common Reporting Standard, the Trustees include a question to establish the tax residency status of beneficiaries on their bursary application form.
For the academic year 2021/22 the Trustees awarded three bursaries of £8,000 each to: Aled Evans University of Cardiff Matthew Daprè University of Cardiff Stephen Hughes University of Cardiff
These students each received the final £2,500 tranche of their bursary in the financial year 2022/23.
For the academic year 2022/23 the Trustees awarded five bursaries of £8,600 each to: Edward Bunting University of Leeds Sophia Coates University of Leeds Cassia Copeland University of the West of England Nerys Medi Davies University of Cardiff Adam Wilkinson University of Newcastle
They received the first two instalments of their bursary, totalling £5,800 each, during the financial year 2022/23 and were reported by their university to be making good progress. The final payment, of £2,800 each, will be made in the Trust’s reporting year 2023/24.
The Trustees continue to be assured that, with the financial support provided by a Brian Large Bursary, the students complete their Masters courses and progress on to careers in transport.
The Voorhees-Large Prize
An annual prize award, the Voorhees-Large Prize, was announced in 2010, in memory of both Brian Large and Al Voorhees. Al was the founder of Alan M Voorhees and Associates and its UK company, MVA, of which Brian was a Director. The prize, worth £1,000, is awarded to the student studying for a transport Masters at a UK university considered by the Trustees to have written the best dissertation relative to a set of published criteria. UK universities offering a transport Masters course are invited to nominate the best dissertation on a topic related to transport policy, analysis or planning, prepared and submitted by one of their Masters students in the twelve months, usually to 30 November.
The 2022 Voorhees-Large Prize was awarded to Craig Smith for his dissertation ‘ Accessibility, Urban Design, and the Whole Journey Experience of Visually Impaired People in London’ submitted for his Transport and City Planning Masters at UCL’s Bartlett School of Planning, which he was awarded with Distinction .
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