Gates pays for low-income students

Bill Gates' latest donation totals $100m

Microsoft founder, Bill Gates is putting more cash into education, this time with a scholarship programme for low income students in the state of Washington in the US.

At a cost of $100m (£65m) the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will offer 500 four-year scholarships to colleges and universities in the state each year.

This is an enormous grant - the biggest private grant ever in the state of Washington

Bob Craves, Washington Higher Education Board

Scholarship recipients will be chosen from ten to 15 selected high schools, which have more than 100 pupils and at least 20% eligible for free school meals.

Scholarships in 2001 are likely to range from $3,600 to $6,400 - worth about £2,369 to £4,260 at current exchange rates.

The schools chosen will be given $500 (approximately £333) per student to redesign classrooms "into small, autonomous learning environments of no more than 100 students per grade level," the foundation said.

An additional $100 (£67) per student will be spent on boosting college awareness.

"This is an enormous grant - the biggest private grant ever in the state of Washington - and we're enormously thankful," chairman of the state's Higher Education Board, Bob Craves, said.

Supporting education

The foundation, created by Bill Gates and his wife also funds the Millennium Scholarship program, a $1bn nationwide programme offering four-year scholarships to high-achieving, low-income minority students.

In October, the foundation gave $210m to allow 200 non-UK graduate students - with leadership potential - to apply for scholarships to study at Cambridge University.

Mr Gates, who dropped out of Harvard University when he was 20, has also given Cambridge University £12m for a computer laboratory.