Academic Projects
Projects hosted in other departments / labs / institutes of the university
It is university policy that students undertaking summer projects / internships must be taken on as temporary workers by either the host department or the Faculty of Mathematics and paid the National Living Wage (plus holiday pay). National Living Wage is currently £10.42 but the government has announced that it will rise to £11.44 from April 2024.
The estimated cost for an 8-week project in summer 2024 is therefore between £3600 and £4000 depending on exact working hours and the specific student.
A benefit of listing your project with CMP is that we can take care of the administrative work associated with employing your student, including making the payments. Hosts will receive a single invoice for their contribution.
We have a small fund for supporting academic projects, but we expect all host labs / departments to provide complementary funds from their own sources. As a guide, we ask that academic hosts (especially returning ones) do their utmost to find funds within their department to cover at least half the amount needed for their student’s wages (~£1800-£2000). We ask students to also apply to their colleges for support and subsidised accommodation.
If funding support is required, students should fill in the bursary application form (available from mid-January) and submit it by 18 March 2024. The application will require statements from both the student and their supervisor. First round decisions will be made by early May. Some funds will be reserved for a second round, for which applications should be received by 6 May 2024, with decisions announced by the beginning of June.
Multiple projects with one supervisor cannot be supported without matched funding.
For more information on how to support a student in a bursary application including what we will consider when making decisions, please see the bursary webpages.
Industrial Projects
Projects hosted by external companies and organisations
The CMP programme operates on the basis that all students undertaking a CMP project with an industrial host are directly employed and paid by the host company with the level of remuneration depending on the individual organisation. Some companies have standard student placement salaries / stipends, whereas others choose to pay a competitive rate depending on the sector and the student’s experience.
As a minimum we ask that CMP students are paid the National Living Wage which will be £11.44 per hour from April 2024.
Registration Fee
The growth of the programme in recent years has meant a corresponding growth in running and administrative costs. While there remains no charge for submitting a project to be listed with CMP, to help us cover these costs, we have introduced a registration fee of £600 (+VAT) for each student successfully recruited to an industrial project. Hosts will receive an invoice once the student has commenced work on the project.
Under certain circumstances we will consider requests from hosts to waive this fee. For example, for charities or non-profit organisations.
Please contact us via CMP@maths.cam.ac.uk if you have questions or would like to request a fee waiver.
