Masters degree scholarships 2025

Postgraduate loans are available to help fund your further study plans - but ensure you first check what Masters scholarships and bursaries are on offer, as these don't have to be repaid

Types of postgraduate scholarships and bursaries

• Masters scholarships are non-repayable sums of money typically awarded on the basis of academic excellence. They often come with strings attached, such as working for a specific company after you graduate or taking on additional responsibilities within the university. Winning a scholarship is usually a competitive process.
• Postgraduate bursaries (or grants as they're often referred to) are also non-repayable, but these lump sums or annual stipends are available to any student who qualifies for them. This could be students on a specific Masters course, those in the most financial need, or groups that are underrepresented on a course or area of work.

Scholarship amounts awarded

How much you can get from a postgraduate scholarship will vary depending on the nature of the scholarship and the awarding institution, such as a university or charity organisation. The amount can range from contributing a small cash amount towards your tuition fees, living expenses or travel to fully covering the costs of the course.

Other factors that affect the scholarship amount you will receive include the subject of study and any links to medical research, plus any qualifications or skills that would make you eligible for the more competitive and higher-value awards.

You may even be able to secure funding from more than one source.

See the examples below to discover how much you may be able to receive.

Depending on the terms of the specific award, Masters scholarships can be paid in a lump sum or divided into instalments, such as per term.

Finding Masters scholarships

The first place to look for postgraduate funding is the university you want to study at. Universities offer various scholarships and bursaries to serve a range of purposes. These include:

• Academic excellence scholarships - funding for students in recognition of their outstanding academic credentials. These tend to be limited in number, so you'll face a lot of competition to secure the cash. For example, those with a first-class Bachelors degree looking to secure a place on a taught Masters course at Brunel, University of London, may be eligible to apply for a 15% discount on their tuition fees through its Postgraduate Academic Excellence Scholarship.
• Disadvantaged bursaries - given to encourage students from all backgrounds to pursue further study, regardless of their personal circumstances.
• Alumni discounts - many UK universities offer tuition fee discounts of 10% to 15% to their own students who progress to postgraduate study. For instance, the University of Birmingham is offering a £2,000 tuition fee waiver to up to 300 returning undergraduates in 2025/26.
• Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA) - students looking to find PhD funding and acquire hands-on teaching experience can complete a GTA with their university. Alongside researching and writing your thesis, you'll receive fee waivers in return for providing pastoral support and teaching duties to undergraduate students.
• PhD studentships - these highly competitive Doctoral scholarships can guarantee a place on an often pre-determined research project. For more information, see PhD studentships. You can also explore Research Council funding.

The majority of postgraduate scholarships and bursaries need to be secured before the beginning of term. However, if you face financial, health or family difficulties, you can usually apply to your institution for hardship funding at any time throughout the academic year.

To discover whether you may qualify for hardship funding, see GOV.UK - Extra money to pay for university.

UK postgraduate scholarships to study abroad

Many UK students have aspirations to study abroad, but find that it's just too expensive. To make this dream a reality, there are non-profit organisations that specialise in cultural exchanges and provide scholarships to students.

For example, the Fulbright Commission runs a foreign student programme in partnership with US universities for UK Masters or Doctoral degree students with a 2:1 or above looking to study in the USA.

A number of Fulbright postgraduate scholarships are available each year for a study period of up to 12 months.

Masters scholarships for international students

If you're an international student hoping to study in the UK, the British Council lists a range of resources to help you in your search for a Masters scholarship.

You'll also find that UK universities advertise their own awards for prospective international students, including:

• University of Huddersfield - merit-based scholarships of £2,000 to £4,000, with the exact amount dependent on your undergraduate degree grade.
• University of Nottingham - the UK International Postgraduate Excellence Award is for high-achieving overseas students enrolled on an undergraduate course in the UK. It offers £2,000 towards a full-time Masters degree, including the Master of Research (MRes).
• University of Sheffield - scholarships such as the International Postgraduate Taught Merit Scholarship 2025 (75 available), contributing £10,000 towards your tuition fees, and the International Postgraduate Taught Scholarship 2025, which is worth up to £2,500 for courses in the arts and humanities, social sciences, engineering, health, or science.

Scholarships for professional training

If you're plotting your pathway to a specific career, it's always worth investigating whether you're eligible for financial support from learned societies and professional bodies.

For instance, scholarships are available for graduates to teach certain subjects, including:

• chemistry
• computer science
• maths
• physics.

A number of professional bodies, including the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), provide their own teaching scholarships for these subjects in partnership with the Department for Education (DfE).

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) offers scholarships and bursaries for those looking to study nursing.

If you hold an accredited undergraduate engineering degree and are aiming to achieve Chartered Engineer (CEng) status, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) offers a number of Masters scholarships each year.

Funding from charities and trusts

In addition to the above sources of funding, various charities, foundations and trusts also provide financial support for postgraduate study and PhD-level research.

• Many philanthropists leave trust funding in their name for postgraduate students. The Sir Richard Stapley Education Trust offers annual grants of between £650 and £1,500, to UK residents studying any subject at postgraduate level. The Leverhulme Trust is another all-subjects trust fund that distributes around £100million per year to postgraduate students. The trust seeks to 'fund blue skies research and scholarship which has the potential to generate new ideas and research breakthroughs that benefit society'.
• Around ten annual industrial fellowships are awarded by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 to graduates with the potential to make an outstanding contribution to industry through Doctoral research. This programme is also open to those currently in employment, with projects in any science or engineering discipline considered. Other fellowships and scholarships are available from the educational trust. They offer to provide up to £25,000 of funding (half of the person's annual salary) or full university fees, plus a £3,500 travel allowance.
• Medical and health research is a popular field supported by charities. The Wellcome Trust offers a range of fellowships, bursaries, and scholarships in areas such as biomedical science, population health, product development and applied research. These are available from affiliated charities, such as Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the Medical Research Council.

Government bursaries

The UK government provides non-repayable funding for postgraduate study in several different forms. These include:

• Disabled Students' Allowances (DSAs) - in addition to any other forms of student finance, postgraduates can get an allowance to cover additional costs due to a mental health problem, long-term illness, or other disability.
• Get Into Teaching - Bursaries and scholarships - for trainees entitled to support from their country's student finance provider and who are enrolled on a teacher training course that leads to the award of qualified teacher status (QTS). Explore funding for teacher training.
• NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF) - nursing bursaries are available for pre-registration students looking to study midwifery or another allied health profession at postgraduate level. This is delivered through training grants, parental support and specialist subject payments, as well as regional incentives, help towards travel and accommodation costs and an exceptional hardship fund.
• Social Work Bursaries - a limited number of income-assessed bursaries are supplied by the NHS Business Services Authority to cover study and living costs from the first year of study onwards. Read more about social work courses.

Search for scholarships through publications and directories

Annual publications such as The Grants Register and The Directory of Grant Making Trusts provide comprehensive guides on the funding available.

Online directories, such as FundsOnline a²Ô»å Charity Choice, can help you find the right organisation and funding opportunities to suit your needs.

Many national charities, including Turn2us, also have their own grant search facilities.

Finally, you can visit GOV.UK - Search the charity register.

Get funding through postgraduate loans

If you aren't eligible for a scholarship or bursary, the government also provides loans for postgraduate study similar to the undergraduate student loan. You have to repay these when you're earning above an income threshold.

Discover more about:

• English postgraduate loans
• Scottish postgraduate loans
• Welsh postgraduate loans
• Northern Irish postgraduate loans
• PhD loans

Applying for a postgraduate scholarship

Securing a university scholarship

• Most universities stipulate that you'll need an offer to study with them before you can apply for a scholarship, so do your research and make sure you're prepared to start the process as soon as possible.
• For some scholarships, you only need to apply for the course as a self-funded student to be automatically considered for an award. This is the case with the International Merit-Based Scholarship from the University of Huddersfield and the Postgraduate Academic Excellence Scholarship from Brunel.
• In other instances, you'll be expected to apply separately, once you've applied for the course. For example, the deadline for the first round of applicants for a 2025/26 alumni scholarship at the University of Birmingham is 31 April 2025. The second round closes on 31 July.

This highlights that, in some cases, the earlier you apply for postgraduate scholarships, the more likely you are to be awarded one.

Postgraduate scholarship application process

If you do need to apply, you'll likely submit a standard online application form, which you can find on your university's website. You may also be asked to provide a personal statement.

In this statement, you'll need to include some or all of the following information:

• a brief outline of your course or research project
• your future career ambitions
• your current employment situation and, if you're employed, a brief overview of where you work and your responsibilities in the role
• how you're planning to fund your studies
• the extent of your financial need.

Before you submit your funding application, be sure to check that it is grammatically correct and that you haven't made any obvious errors.

The scholarship application process is highly competitive, so a polished application is vital to being considered for funding.

Once you've applied, it can take three to four weeks to discover whether your scholarship application has been successful. However, it may take even longer to hear back from them, especially during busy processing periods or for particular programmes.

Applying for charity funding

These are typically made directly to the charity organisation.

You may be asked to submit a personal statement or written references from your tutor. If you're called for an interview (either online or in person), you'll be required to give a presentation giving a brief overview of what your research will involve.

It's important to be proactive with charity funding. Some organisations have very early cut-off points for submitting applications, while others will grant funding on a first-come, first-served basis.

Find out more

• Search for postgraduate courses in the UK.
• Get the lowdown on Masters degrees.
• Consider all your postgraduate funding options.
• Explore undergraduate scholarships and bursaries.