All expenses paid to France

Thursday 19 May 2005

Six French Language students are the 2005 recipients of the most generous travelling scholarships in Australia, and amongst the most prestigious in the world.

The Hartley Bequest Program, founded in accordance with the will of Emeritus Professor Kelver Hartley, Foundation Professor of French at the University of Newcastle from 1965 to 1968, provides a number of awards which enable students of French to live in France and study in a French university for six months.

Director of the Hartley Bequest Program, Emeritus Professor Ken Dutton, OAM, said the University uses the income from Professor Hartley's endowment (which currently stands at almost $4 million) to enable students of French to travel to France and study an approved program there with all expenses paid.

One of this year's Hartley award winners, Tyrone Crisp, is no stranger to France. He won a Kelver Hartley Undergraduate Scholarship in 2003.

Tyrone returned to Newcastle to complete his Honours Year and received a University Medal in Mathematics, having previously achieved an unprecedented perfect score in his Advanced Diploma course at the University of Franche-Comté in France. Tyrone will now undertake doctoral studies at Pennsylvania State University, interspersed with periods of research at institutions in France for which he will be sponsored by the Hartley Bequest Program.

Susan Allen, a Masters degree student in French, will use a Grant-in-Aid under the Hartley Bequest Program to carry out research towards her degree in a number of libraries in France this year.

Four undergraduate students, James Morillas, Sarah-Kate Rappeneker, Amanda Riethmuller and Travis Watters, have been awarded Kelver Hartley Undergraduate Scholarships which will enable them to undertake a six-month program of academic and cultural studies in France.

The program will be credited towards their Newcastle degree, as well as counting as an additional diploma recognised internationally.Emeritus Professor Dutton said that the magnanimous bequest of Professor Kelver Hartley had helped put Newcastle on the international map in the field of French studies.

For interviews: Deputy Chancellor, Emeritus Professor Ken Dutton via the Media Unit on (02) 4921 5351.