Northumbria University runs the latest Vice-Chancellor's Scholarship Scheme each year available to UK & EU students starting at Northumbria on selected full-time Masters courses.
It was a difficult decision to take a career break and undertake a Masters course, and it involved a number of personal and financial sacrifices. Having undertaken a post-grad course quite recently, some of the funding options available to post-grad students were not available to me this time round.
I heard about the Vice-Chancellor's Scholarship via a friend and researched it on the University website. I didn’t think I would be awarded a scholarship in a million years, but decided to give it a shot.
Andrew Clarey - Financial Incentives & Scholarships for Postgraduate Study from Northumbria University on Vimeo.
The application process is surprisingly easy. I had assumed the questions would be very academic, but they are much more personal, more about what the post-grad means to you on a personal level, what you hope to achieve through the course and what you would like to pursue at the end of it. I found this really refreshing, as it puts a lot of emphasis on how passionate a person is about their education and what they want to achieve in life, rather than their academic achievements.
As expected, I wasn’t awarded the scholarship, but a few weeks later I received an email saying there the University was releasing more scholarships. The questions were the same, and I really didn’t think I could have answered them any better the first-time round, so I did a few minor tweaks and resubmitted them. This time I was awarded the scholarship.
The scholarship has been vital for me in being able to facilitate my Masters. It would have been very difficult, if not impossible to undertake the course had I not been awarded the scholarship, not just in terms of fees but also travelling expenses and general living costs when you aren’t working.
The application process was easy, the questions are more about you as a person, rather than your academic achievements, so if you can display a real passion for why you are undertaking your post-grad study you have a very good chance of being awarded a scholarship.
