About the Trust

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The Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust is an educational charity co-founded in 2014 by the late Lord Weidenfeld and its first chairman André Hoffmann. The Trust provides around thirty graduate scholarships a year for graduates and early career professionals from developing and emerging countries to study at Oxford and participate in a specially created Leadership Programme which gives them the tools to return to their countries and make a difference in whichever sphere they can. The Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust is the largest philanthropic scholarship supported by the University of Oxford.

History of the Trust

George Weidenfeld, Lord Weidenfeld of Chelsea GBE, was a distinguished publisher and philanthropist. It was his passionate commitment to learning that inspired the foundation of both the unique Weidenfeld Scholarships and Leadership Programme and the Humanitas activities. To mark the occasion of Lord Weidenfeld’s 95th Birthday an endowment fund for the Scholarships was launched in 2015. This initiative was kickstarted by André Hoffmann with a generous philanthropic gift of £5 million. In 2017, to celebrate the Trust's tenth anniversary, André Hoffmann made a further gift of £9 million. The University of Oxford contributed 40% of the Endowment through the Oxford Graduate Scholarship Matched Fund, a significant endorsement of the Programme.

George Weidenfeld reflected and represented things that are really important. And in practical terms, the consequence of that was the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholarships and Leadership Programme. We should reflect on his vision, a vision in which he comprehended that of course people’s individual identities, their religion, their ethnicity, matter. But what matters most, by far, is their sense of common humanity. We should remember him and also acknowledge André Hoffmann and other benefactors, including the University of Oxford, who ensured that his vision could be turned into reality.
Lord Patten of Barnes, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Speaking at the WHT 15th Anniversary Dinner

At the end of this academic year, we asked four of our scholars to share some of their experiences of Oxford and the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust with you. For more information, visit our website - www.whtrust.org - or follow us on Twitter @WeidenfeldSchol.