Legacy donation supports PhD studentships

The University of Exeter recently held the first Niklaus-Cartwright lecture in honour of two academics, one of whom left a generous legacy to French at Exeter.

The first Niklaus-Cartwright lecture was held on the University’s Streatham campus in March. The lecture was named after two eminent academics, Professor Robert Niklaus, former Head of French at Exeter and his student Michael Cartwright, an eminent academic in his own right who generously bequeathed funding for French at Exeter. Visiting speaker, Dr David McCallam from the University of Sheffield, spoke at the event about “The Volcano: A Tool for Thinking in Eighteenth-Century France”.

The Niklaus Fund, originally set up in memory of Professor Robert Niklaus to support French at Exeter, received a generous legacy donation from Professor Michael Cartwright which has since had various positive impacts on the Modern Languages department at the University of Exeter. As well as providing funding for travel bursaries and the Niklaus-Cartwright lecture, the legacy donation has provided funding to support three PhD scholars, including French Literature student, Edward Mills.

Edward said “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity, to investigate various French literary texts and to make an original contribution to knowledge in a subject that I have loved for many years”

Edward met the Niklaus family who also attended the lecture to express his gratitude and convey just how this funding affected his studies positively.

If you’d like to find out more about leaving a legacy and the profound impact it can have, please contact the team at legacy@exeter.ac.uk.

IMAGE: Professor Niklaus, first row, eighth from the left, with the French Department, 1968