Global Masters Scholarships

£2,000 scholarships for international students studying with us in September 2024

  • Incoming-Students

    Applications are now closed

    Our Global Masters Scholarship closed for applications on 19 August 2024. Students who joined the University in September 2024, and met the below eligibility criteria, will receive their automatic £2,000 tuition fee discount by October 2024.

    For students wanting to study at the University of Birmingham during 2025/26 on a Masters course, you can find out more about our new 125th Anniversary Scholarship by using the below button. Our new 125th Anniversary Scholarship will be applied automatically to eligible international students.

    125th Anniversary Scholarships

125th Anniversary Scholarships for International Students

In 2025, as we celebrate 125 years of University status by Royal Charter, we are proud to mark this milestone by investing in the future of global education. One of the ways we are doing this is through our prestigious 125th Anniversary Scholarships, offering £4,000 to international students who choose to pursue their Masters degree with us at the University of Birmingham in September 2025, and awards of up to £5,000 for students domiciled in India.

Below you can find information relating to the Global Masters Scholarship that was available for International students from select countries to receive a £2,000 tuition fee discount for their studies commencing in September 2024.

For the most up-to-date scholarship information, you can find out about our 125th Anniversary Scholarships.

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    £2,000 to kick-start your studies

    Birmingham has a proud heritage of removing barriers to education to enable the most academically talented students to fulfil their potential in learning and education. The Global Masters Scholarship was available to all international students from a selection of countries who were seeking to study a taught Masters degree at Birmingham in the 2024/25 academic year.

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    How do I apply?

    If you met the criteria (eligibility information below), your scholarship would have been automatically deducted from your tuition fees by October 2024. You would have needed to accept your unconditional offer to study with us by 19 August 2024 and paid a deposit to secure your place on your programme.

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Who could apply?

Eligibility criteria

In order to be eligible, candidates must have met the following requirements. You must:

  • Have applied for, and receive an offer of admission for, a taught Masters degree at the University of Birmingham UK campus, to study in the 2024/25 academic year.
  • Be classed as ‘domiciled’ in one of the selected countries. Please see the list below.
  • Be classed by the University as an overseas fee payer for tuition fee purposes.
  • Started your studies at the University in September/ October 2024 on a full-time course delivered at the University's UK campus

Are there any programmes not eligible?

  • If you decided to defer your programme start date to September 2025, you will no longer be eligible as the scholarship was only available for programmes starting in September 2024.
  • Students who sought to study on a course solely delivered as a ‘distance learning’ programme were not eligible for this scholarship.
  • Students who applied for programmes in the Birmingham Business School were not eligible for this scholarship but were eligible for other separate MSc and MBA scholarships offered by the Business School.
  • Postgraduate programmes including MPhil, MRes, MMus and MLit were not eligible. PGDip and PGCert programmes were also not eligible.
  • Undergraduate degree programmes including the MBChB, MEng, MSci and MPharm undergraduate programmes were not eligible.
  • Students studying at the University of Birmingham Dubai campus were not eligible for this scholarship.

Which were the eligible countries?

  • Cameroon
  • Egypt
  • Gambia, The
  • Ghana
  • India
  • Iran
  • Kenya
  • Nigeria
  • Pakistan
  • South Africa
  • Sri Lanka
  • Tanzania, United Republic of
  • Uganda
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Vietnam
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe

How could I have applied?

This scholarship would have been automatically offered to applicants who met the criteria outlined on this page.

To have secured this scholarship, candidates must have had an unconditional offer and had to have accepted this unconditional offer via the postgraduate portal by 19 August 2024 (23:59 UK time/ GMT+1). If candidates secured an unconditional offer after this, they would not have been eligible for this scholarship

Note that to receive an unconditional offer of admission you would have been required to pay the standard £2,000 (GBP) admissions deposit.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions are located further down the page under the mailing list form. These contain further details relating to the terms and conditions and eligibility of this scholarship, please ensure you read through these

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    What happened next?

    This scholarship would have been automatically offered to applicants who met the criteria outlined above. You must have accepted your unconditional offer to fully secure the scholarship by 19 August 2024. You must have also paid your deposit by 31 August 2024. (See more terms and conditions below).

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Terms and Conditions

Deadline

We recommended that you applied for your intended programme as soon as possible to ensure you met the eligibility for this scholarship.

For information on how to apply to our postgraduate programmes, visit our guidance pages.

Once an offer for admissions is made, candidates must have met the deadlines set by the Admissions Office (and stated in their offer letter) to ‘accept’ their offer and pay a deposit – this would have simultaneously secured both the place on the Masters degree programme and the Global Masters Scholarship.

To have secured this scholarship candidates must have had an unconditional offer, and have accepted this unconditional offer, by 19 August 2024 (23:59 UK time/ GMT+1). If candidates secured an unconditional offer after this, they would not be eligible for this scholarship.

Please be aware that the University reserves the right to cease the scholarship offer to new applicants at any time.

Awarding

Scholarships were awarded based on the eligibility criteria outlined above and according to the application and admission process stated above. The University made its best endeavours to input the scholarship details onto each student’s CAS record for visa application purposes (this ‘note’ would have been visible for the UKVI but not the student). The scholarship, applied as a discount to tuition fees, was awarded / applied upon enrolment of the successful candidate in September 2024.

Financial Conditions

Please note that eligible students who successfully secured this scholarship must have had sufficient funds to cover the full cost of living at the University of Birmingham (plus any visa/travel expenses associated with studying in the UK) and must also have been able to pay the outstanding tuition fees that were not covered by the scholarship.

To secure this scholarship, candidates must have completed online registration and be ‘Normally Registered’ by 4 October 2024 (23:59 UK time/ GMT+1). If this was not the case, the University would have withdrawn the scholarship. Candidates must have also paid their net tuition fees for the first year by 1 November 2024, or have set up a payment plan and paid their first instalment.

If you withdrew from your programme of study at the University, this scholarship would also have been fully withdrawn, and you will be required to pay your tuition fees. The date of your withdrawal (as reported to Taught Student Administration) and the type of programme would determine the amount of tuition fee that you would have been charged.

In the event that you take a Leave of Absence after the scholarship has been applied to your tuition fee account, the scholarship will be adjusted to accurately reflect the applicable tuition fees for that cycle. Upon your return, the scholarship will be honoured for the subsequent period of study at the rate applicable for the subsequent year, subject to availability and at the discretion of the University and the University reserves the right to withdraw the scholarship if the funding is no longer available.

Are there any other conditions to this scholarship?

In accepting and securing this scholarship, awardees are expected to support the University, to a reasonable extent, by providing profiles testimonials and engaging in ambassadorial activities if requested by the University. 

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    By choosing to study at Birmingham, you can be part of an outstanding university, renowned for changing lives and transforming society. Be part of our international community, with over 10,000 students from approximately 150 countries.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What was the discount for the award?

The University of Birmingham Global Masters Scholarship provided a £2,000 tuition fee discount for eligible students.

Once you had received an offer of admission for a taught Masters degree and met all the eligibility criteria, this discount was then applied automatically to your fees when you enrolled onto your programme of choice. You would therefore have been asked to pay your fees with the discount already deducted.

Who was eligible?

In order to be eligible, candidates must meet the following requirements. You must:

Have applied for, and received an offer of admission for, a taught Masters degree at the University of Birmingham UK campus, to study in the 2024/25 academic year.

Be classed as ‘domiciled’ in one of the selected countries listed.

If you are in receipt of a full tuition fee scholarship from an external organisation, you will not be eligible for this scholarship. When completing your enrolment, please ensure that you state who your funding will be provided by.

We reserve the right to withdraw the scholarship should we be made aware after your enrolment that you are fully funded by an external organistation.

Be classed by the University as an overseas fee payer for tuition fee purposes.

Start your studies at the University in September/October 2024 on a full-time, on-campus University of Birmingham course delivered in the UK.

What does ‘domiciled’ mean?

Domicile means the country where you are habitually resident. It is not the same as nationality or citizenship.

In this context, being classed as ‘domiciled’ in one of the selected countries means you must be a habitual resident in one of those countries.

Are there any programmes that were not eligible?

If you decided to defer your programme start date to September 2025, you would no longer be eligible for this scholarship as it was only available for programmes with a September 2024 start date.

Students who sought to study on a course solely delivered as a ‘distance learning’ programme were not eligible for this scholarship.

Students who applied for programmes in the Birmingham Business School were not eligible for this scholarship but were eligible for other separate MSc and MBA scholarships offered by the Business School.

Undergraduate degree programmes including the MBChB, MEng, MSci and MPharm undergraduate programmes were not eligible.

Postgraduate programmes including MPhil, MRes, MMus and MLit were not eligible. PGDip and PGCert programmes were also not eligible.

Did I have to make an application? When would I have heard if I was successful?

There was no application process for this scholarship. If you met the requirements, you would have received the discount automatically upon enrolment onto your chosen programme in September 2024. To have been considered for the scholarship you would have needed to make an application to your intended Masters programme and have received an unconditional offer of admission and met the other criteria (see ‘who is eligible’ FAQ).

How was the discount applied?

Once you had met all of the conditions of your offer, accepted your offer and paid your deposit, our Admissions Office would have sent you a ‘Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies’ (CAS) which you could then use to apply for a student visa. We sent successful scholars a scholarship letter embedded within an email which you could print and submit as part of your visa application. However, rest assured that as part of the CAS generation process the University communicated details of your tuition fees and of this scholarship directly to the UK Visas and Immigration Agency. Please note that you would not have required a new CAS if you had already received one and you should have proceed with your visa application in the regular way.

Once you had undertaken the stages outlined above, you would have been invited to complete online registration. Once completed, you would have received an automatically-generated invoice for your tuition fees for the 2024/25 academic year. Note that this would have shown your total tuition fee for your Masters programme (without the scholarship deducted). As a University of Birmingham Global Masters Scholarship winner we advised that you manually deduct the £2,000 scholarship from the total tuition fee amount stated in your invoice and that you only make payment for the net tuition fee (your gross/ total tuition fee minus the £2,000 scholarship). Our Finance Office would have ensured that the scholarship was applied to your financial record at the University.

If you had already paid your full tuition fee in advance, once you enrolled you would have been able to request a refund to the value of the scholarship. More information about this process can be found on the Intranet.

If you have any questions related to payment of your tuition fees then you may contact the Finance Office Accounts Receivable Team: accountsreceivable@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Was there a deadline?

We recommended that you applied as early as possible to your chosen programme.

To have secured this scholarship, candidates must have had an unconditional offer, and have accepted this unconditional offer, by 19 August 2024 (23:59 UK time/ GMT+1). If candidates secured an unconditional offer after this, they were not eligible for this scholarship.

Was I eligible if I already had a scholarship for my postgraduate programme?

Yes. This scholarship could be used in conjunction with another University-funded scholarship or other discount.

However, the scholarship could not be in held in conjunction with a scholarship that provides a full 100% fee waiver / discount, provided by either the university or an external body.

Was I eligible if I had funding from anywhere else?

If you benefited from partial funding from an external organisation, you would still be eligible for the fee discount. However, the scholarship could not be in held in conjunction with a scholarship that provides a full 100% fee waiver / discount, provided by either the university or an external body.

Was I eligible if I was studying a Masters before September 2024?

No, the scheme was not available to students already enrolled on a Masters-level taught programme before September 2024.

Was I eligible if I was studying at the University of Birmingham Dubai campus?

No, the scholarship was only open to students who would be studying at the UK campus.

I am a UK student, did this scholarship apply to me?

This scholarship was specifically for students who were overseas for fees and were domiciled in the countries listed on the main Global Masters scholarships page, provided they met the other eligibility criteria.

Note that this scholarship was not applicable to students domiciled in the UK.

Did the course have to be full-time or did a part-time programme also qualify?

Only full-time taught Masters programmes qualified.

Did courses delivered remotely (online) qualify?

No. Courses advertised as solely being delivered as a ‘distance’ or ‘remote learning’ programmes were not eligible for this scholarship.

The programme must have been solely delivered on our main Birmingham campus in the United Kingdom.

I’ve already applied for a taught Masters programme; am I still eligible?

If you have already applied to a programme, you must wait to receive an offer of admission.

If you receive an offer of admission for the programme, and meet the other eligibility criteria, the discount will be automatically applied to your fees.

How would I have had to apply?

This scholarship would have been automatically offered to applicants who met the criteria outlined on this page.

To have secured the scholarship, candidates must have had an unconditional offer, and have accepted this unconditional offer via the postgraduate portal by 19 August 2024 (23:59 UK time / GMT+1) . If candidates secured an unconditional offer after this, they were not eligible for this scholarship.

Note that to receive an unconditional Offer you would have been required to pay the standard £2,000 (GBP) admissions deposit.

Candidates must also have completed online registration and be ‘Normally Registered’ by 4 October 2024 (23:59 UK time/ GMT+1). If this is was the case, the University would have withdrawn the scholarship. Candidates must have also paid their net tuition fees for the first year by 1 November, or have set up a payment plan and paid their first instalment.

How can I find out more or get in contact?

If you have any further questions you can contact our regional officers using the email addresses which can be found within the ‘Meet us’ tab on our country specific webpages.