Students awarded bursaries by Rees Jeffreys Road Fund to study at University of Westminster

The bursaries of £10,000 are awarded by the Trustees of the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund each year to students undertaking transport related MSc studies in the UK. It is a competitive scheme, with Zahra and Mohammad being two out of only eight recipients this year.

Zahra Ali has a first-class Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Geography from the University of Exeter and won the Exceptional Dissertation Award and Dean’s Commendation. The Transport Planning and Management MSc course will allow her to expand her knowledge over a sustained length of time and enrich her current role at the London Borough of Hounslow. Completing a transport related Master’s will also help her to fulfil the educational requirements of the Transport Planning Professional qualification, and she is currently working through the Transport Planning Society’s Professional Development Scheme.

Mohammad Mushfiqul Islam has a first-class BSc in Civil Engineering, and he is also a research assistant at the Center for Advisory and Testing Services (CATS-MIST) at the Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST). In his undergraduate research work titled ‘Road Pricing in Urban Street Segments along MRT Route to Improve Vehicle Level of Service’, he proposed a new scheme to price urban street segments with an application in Dhaka. The study estimates congestion toll relating to vehicle level of service. He was awarded the Commandant’s Commendation for Best Project by his university’s Civil Engineering faculty in 2019 and the thesis was also published in the Journal of Transportation Technologies. On completion of the Master’s course at Westminster, he hopes to be proficient enough to contribute to the highway, transportation, and logistics sector in the UK.

Speaking about how the bursaries will support Zahra and Mohammad in their studies at Westminster, Dr Enrica Papa, Reader in Transport Planning and the Course Leader for the Transport Planning and Management MSc, said: “The bursaries will give these excellent students the opportunity to attend our MSc in Transport Planning and Management, which will develop and equip them with the right skills for the future. The bursary will also increase the time they can devote to their studies and make their MSc studies their top priority.

“I am confident that they will be a highly valuable addition to this University of Westminster MSc Course, where they will be able to develop and apply their abilities. I have no doubt that they will put the bursary to good use. I’m grateful to the funder for this opportunity.”

Find out more about Transport and Logistics courses at the University of Westminster.