Many students will find themselves unable to afford a postgraduate programme, due to the cost of fees as well as the everyday living costs, unless they are funded through a studentship or masters scholarship. Your first port of call could be applying for a £500 Postgrad Solutions Bursary!
For any Masters scholarship you will have to make a formal application. Since there are always more people seeking scholarships than the number of scholarships available, there will then be a selection process by the organisation providing the funding. In most cases scholarships are awarded to the most academically excellent applicants. However, some will be restricted to the best candidates in particular categories – perhaps for those from a particular country or seeking to study a specific subject or from a particular background or with a particular talent.
- Read the regulations and criteria carefully, making sure you meet them all.
- Meet the application deadline.
- Fill in the application carefully, providing all the information needed.
- Try to ‘sell’ yourself - scholarships are very competitive, and you need to show that you are an excellent applicant.
- Choose referees who will support your application strongly and who will stress your excellence.
Because of the competition for scholarships you also need to apply for as many as possible and to be prepared for rejections. Being rejected is not a sign of failure, just an indicator that many people are seeking to study for a postgraduate degree.
There are thousands of organisations worldwide that support postgraduate scholarships. It is not possible here to identify all or even a small proportion of them, so we shall look at the main sources of funding and suggest some ways of searching. Make sure you allow plenty of time for the search!
Government scholarships
Many governments have schemes to award scholarships for students to study abroad. Find out about these scholarships through your own government offices, current university careers advice service or through British Council offices in your own country.
Business/commercial scholarships
Many businesses provide funding for scholarships, although in many cases these are only available to those who work for or have been offered employment by those companies, as they are part of the company’s training programme. You may need to guarantee that you will return to work for the company for a specified period after graduation. Finding out about these awards will be through advertising from the companies or through a web search.
Charity organisation scholarships
Both local and national charities provide funding for students to study abroad, particularly where the charity has an educational or development focus. Such scholarships may be limited in number and only available to students from certain backgrounds.
Local scholarships
Many local organisations or charities have small numbers of masters scholarships for the education of those from a particular town, city, school, church or university. The best way to find out about these will be through local contacts and organisations. Ask your local church or faith organisation leader, or your local government office or your former school headteacher or the head of the local business guild or chamber of commerce.
Scholarships from international organisations
Some international organisations offer scholarships if they have an educational or development focus. For example, the European Union has scholarships to support students from Latin America wishing to study at postgraduate level in an EU country. Information on EU scholarships can be found on the Welcome Europe website.
UK government scholarships
The UK government has always tried to encourage international students to study for their postgraduate degrees in the UK, and has a number of scholarship schemes to support this. More than 20,000 international students are funded each year through these schemes. The most significant ones are:
- ORSAS (Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme) Scholarships
- DFID Shared Scholarship Scheme
UK research council scholarships and studentships
Each of the seven research councils in the UK that fund university research has scholarship schemes. These are only open to UK students and EU students, and not postgraduates from outside these areas. Full-time scholarships, which are highly competitive, cover fees plus living costs of at least £12,600 per year. Applications for scholarships from the research councils have to be made through a university and directly to the research council.
UK business scholarships
Most UK businesses that provide scholarships provide them for their own sponsored employees. Companies with an international profile with offices and bases around the world may therefore offer some of these awards to students from outside the UK. These may be available for study in a university in your own country, but may also be available for study in the UK.
Charity organisation scholarships
Just as with charitable organisations in your own country, UK-based charities may be able to offer scholarships for international students. Some charitable trusts, for example, see the sponsorship of international students as a key aim, and may have a small number of awards available each year.
University scholarships
Scholarships awarded by individual universities are an important source of funding for international students. These may include scholarships paid by the university or by an individual department. Universities use such scholarships as an important part of their marketing – some may be paid for by the university itself, while others may be paid for from endowments or donations made to the university to support international student scholarships. Information on these scholarships will be published in the university’s prospectus or on its website or, often, in a separate booklet on scholarships.
Professional association scholarships
Professional associations, and particularly those with strong international links, sometimes provide scholarships to enable international students to study in the UK. These will be restricted to those studying within one of the fields covered by that professional association. Look at the websites of any UK professional body in your academic field to see if they have a scholarship scheme.
Chapter 3 of the book Postgraduate Study in the UK by Nicholas and Rosalind Foskett gives much more detail, including further sources of information to assist postgraduate students in finding a suitable scholarship or other financial support.
Postgrad Solutions Study Bursaries