Sloane Robinson Foundation

The Sloane Robinson Foundation is a UK grant-making charity established in 1998 by investment managers George Robinson and Hugh Sloane, founders of Sloane Robinson LLP. Its core mission is to advance educational opportunities through scholarships and financial support, enabling overseas students—particularly from less advantaged backgrounds in Africa and Asia—to study at leading UK universities like Oxford, and British students to study abroad. Rooted in values of opportunity, excellence, and internationalism, the Foundation adopts an investment-led approach to ensure long-term sustainability, focusing on tertiary education, global exchange, and social mobility via partnerships with elite academic institutions.

It funds scholarships, fellowships, bursaries, research positions, international exchanges, and capital projects such as academic buildings or library resources, administered by partner universities. Grants target talented postgraduate students in fields like public policy, prioritizing high-impact programs that broaden access to world-class education and foster global understanding, with no support for direct individual aid or non-educational activities.

Eligible applicants are exclusively large, established UK academic institutions based in England and Wales, such as Oxford colleges or the University of Bristol; small charities, grassroots groups, or non-UK entities are ineligible. Unsolicited applications are not accepted—funding occurs only through invite-only, long-term strategic partnerships, with no public deadlines, forms, or open rounds; trustees exercise full discretion aligned with university admissions cycles.

Typical grants range from £20,000 (per-student scholarships) to £10 million (capital gifts), with recent annual expenditure around £983,000. Distinctively, it avoids core costs, unrestricted support, or general charity operations, standing out for its elite focus on international higher education mobility and founder-driven legacy of global talent development.