World University Service UK

The World University Service (WUS) and WUS (UK) has its roots in European Student Relief (ESF), an autonomous sub-section of the World’s Student Christian Federation which was established in 1920 to meet urgent material needs among university students caused by the First World War. Donald Grant, a British Quaker, was a founder of ESF and its first General Secretary. He, with colleagues in the UK, played a leading role in the post war feeding and rehabilitation of students in Europe In 1926 ESF developed into the independent organisation International Student Service (ISS), based in Geneva. ISS’s work during the inter-war period included provision of aid following an earthquake in Bulgaria and during the Sino-Japanese War, and aid for refugees from universities in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. During the Second World War ISS established a war emergency relief committee – European Student Relief Fund (later World Student Relief) – in collaboration with the World’s Student Christian Federation and Pax Romana. This fund continued to operate until 1950.