Masters Funding - A Wealth of Options! Unlike undergraduate degrees, Masters courses aren't usually funded through central loan or grant schemes. That doesn't mean funding isn't available for your Masters though - in fact there are a rich variety of scholarships, small grants and other support packages designed to help students bear the cost of postgraduate study. We should know: we list thousands of these awards on our PostgraduateFunding.com website. Making sense of the different types of support and knowing where to start looking can be difficult though. To help you, here's a quick guide to some of the most common sources of funding for Masters students:
Masters Funding from Research Councils National funding bodies such as the UK Research Councils fund some Masters degrees, but will usually target students who intend to continue to PhD study. A course funded in this way may be referred to as a 'Research Preparation Masters'. Alternatively, funding may be offered for combined '1+3' programmes, in which a year of Masters study and a three year PhD project are funded as one package. Whatever its arrangement, Research Council funding will usually constitute a complete funding package, providing a maintenance grant in addition to covering the cost of tuition fees. Research Councils don't usually accept applications directly from students. Instead 'Block Grants' are provided to universities, who then allocate those funds. So, your university will usually advertise this funding if it is available for your course. If you are looking for a combined Masters and PhD programme with Research Council funding, try searching FindAPhD.com for '4 Year' '1+3' or 'New Route PhD Programmes'.
Masters Funding from Universities Most universities also provide their own postgraduate scholarships. Some will be fully funded fee and maintenance packages. Others might simply offer a fee full or partial fee waiver. Eligibility criteria may vary, with some awards offered to all applicants, whilst others are restricted to specific groups of students. It's worth checking with your prospective university to see what support is available and what the application process for it is. Some universities will automatically consider you for their scholarship awards, but others will expect you to make a separate application.
Masters Funding from Charities, Trusts and Learned Societies A large amount of postgraduate funding is also available from independent organisations seeking to promote research and training in specific fields. Many are quite small and support research and training in very specific areas. Good examples might be a medical charity with an interest in preparing new researchers in a specific health sciences specialism or a regional heritage group, willing to support research into local history topics.
Search and Compare Masters Funding at PostgraduateFunding.com All of the different sources of Masters funding described above are listed on our sister-site, PostgraduateFunding.com. Here you can look for full scholarships available from Research Councils, universities, charities and trusts or find smaller grants that can be combined to support your course. Our powerful search tool makes it easy to compare the many different types of Masters funding, including the grants from smaller providers that can be hard to find elsewhere. Go take a look! |
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