THE University of York has been given a share of a £2 million grant to help boost its humanities funding and create new scholarships.

In total, nine universities across the UK have been chosen to take part in a pilot funding programme of postgraduate scholarships, as areward for their excellence and academic rigour in the field of humanities.

The Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarships in the humanities, which will be funded by the grant, will cover the three disciplines of history, literature and languages, with each university being offered one Wolfson Scholarship for each of the disciplines.

Prof Brian Cantor, the university’s vice-chancellor, said: “I am delighted that the Wolfson Foundation has recognised the importance of supporting the humanities.

“The University of York has invested very heavily in the humanities over the last ten years, and the Wolfson postgraduate scholarships will reflect our mutual and profound commitment to the humanities in these challenging times for higher education.”

Paul Ramsbottom, chief executive of the Wolfson Foundation, said: “High-quality research in the humanities is of critical importance to British society.

“The announcement of this pilot scheme reflects our concern about the effect of undergraduate debt on numbers of students continuing to postgraduate research. We are also acutely aware of pressures on funding in the humanities. The hope is that many students funded through this programme will be future academic leaders.”

The scholarships will be awarded to outstanding students who demonstrate the potential to make an impact on one of these fields and to be future academic leaders, and will be awarded on merit to students who intend on taking up an academic career.

The university was recently voted joint 15th in the country in the 2012 Sunday Times University Guide, and is still in the top 100 of the World University Rankings.