Terms and conditions

Our Birmingham Masters Scholarship scheme offers £3,000 via a tuition fee discount, to support the brightest and best applicants undertaking Masters study at Birmingham during 2025/26.

All scholarships offered through the Birmingham Masters Scholarship Scheme are bound by the below terms and conditions. You should familiarise yourself with all of the below terms and conditions before applying to the Birmingham Masters Scholarship scheme.

Terms

'Birmingham Masters Scholarship Scheme' refers to both the Birmingham Masters Scholarship and the Online Birmingham Masters Scholarship.
'Birmingham Masters Scholarship' refers to the scholarship that offers a £3,000 tuition fee waiver to students intending to study one of the scholarship's eligible courses.
'Online Birmingham Masters Scholarship' refers to the scholarship that offers a £3,000 tuition fee waiver to students intending to study one of the scholarship's eligible online courses.
'You' refers to the students applying to the Birmingham Masters Scholarship Scheme and, if successful, the awardee receiving a scholarship.

1. Eligibility

In order to be eligible for the Birmingham Masters Scholarship Scheme, you must be:

Undertaking a Masters course in an eligible subject commencing in the 2025/26 academic year;
Self-funded or applying for a postgraduate government loan to pay your fees and living expenses;
Not already registered on a postgraduate programme;
Eligible for the specified fee status of the scholarship.*

*The Birmingham Masters Scholarship is exclusively for students eligible for Home fees whilst the Online Birmingham Masters Scholarship is open to both Home and International students.

If your application is successful, all offers are based upon the terms and conditions of the scholarship and further eligibility checks will be undertaken. All offers are made upon the assumption that any and all information you submit is truthful and accurate; the scholarship can and will be revoked if you are found to be in violation of the scholarship's terms and conditions at any point.

The Birmingham Masters Scholarship awarding will prioritise students who have graduated from one of the Midlands-based universities identified in the below tab; however, having studied at a Midlands-based university is not a requirement for an application. This prioritisation does not apply to the Online Birmingham Masters Scholarship.

Please see the below tab for the eligible courses for the Birmingham Masters Scholarship and Online Birmingham Masters Scholarship.

Due to the high volume of applications, the University reserves the right to close the Birmingham Masters Scholarship Scheme early, meaning that any successive round(s) after the first round of applications may not be executed, despite any initial plans of operating multiple rounds, if all scholarships are allocated to successful applicants.

Holding other funding in conjunction

As both the Birmingham Masters Scholarship and Online Birmingham Masters Scholarship are part of the Birmingham Masters Scholarship Scheme, students can only be made an awardee for one of these schemes; it is not possible to be hold the Birmingham Masters Scholarship and Online Birmingham Masters Scholarship in conjunction.

The Birmingham Masters Scholarship can be held in conjunction with other sources of funding, including scholarships and bursaries. However, the Online Birmingham Masters Scholarship cannot be held in conjunction with any other scholarships, such as an early bird discount or the Alumni Scholarship.

Students are able to receive a governmental loan to support their costs, such as a UK Government Postgraduate Loan.

Eligible courses for the Birmingham Masters Scholarship

The Birmingham Masters Scholarship can only be held by students that are enrolled onto an eligible postgraduate taught Masters degree at the University of Birmingham.

Eligible courses include the following, delivered at our Edgbaston Campus, Stratford-upon-Avon, partnered institutions or by distance learning:

LLM
MA (Taught)
MSc (Pre-reg)
MSc (Taught)
MPH
MEd
MBA
MPA

As the scholarship is only applicable to postgraduate taught Masters degrees, ineligible courses include:

MA/MSc by Research
MRes (combined taught and research)
Integrated Masters degrees (such as MSci/MEng)
Postgraduate Diplomas (PGDip)
Postgraduate Certificates (PGCert)
Postgraduate Research courses (such as PhDs)

If an awardee of the Birmingham Masters Scholarship transfers to an ineligible course, the Birmingham Masters Scholarship will be revoked and the student will no longer receive the £3,000 tuition fee waiver and will be liable for the payment of this value as well as any outstanding tuition fees.

Eligible universities in the Midlands catchment (Birmingham Masters Scholarship only)

The list below shows the universities and university colleges considered ‘Midlands’ for the purposes of the Birmingham Masters Scholarship application:

University of Birmingham, Birmingham
Coventry University, Coventry
University of Warwick, Coventry
University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton
Aston University, Birmingham
Keele University, Keele
University of Worcester, Worcester
University of Nottingham, Nottingham
Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent
Newman University College, Birmingham
University College Birmingham, Birmingham
Loughborough University, Loughborough
University of Leicester, Leicester
Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham
De Montfort University, Leicester
University of Derby, Derby
Harper Adams University College, Newport

Eligible courses for the Online Birmingham Masters Scholarship

LLM Environmental and Energy Law
Master of Business Administration (MBA) Online
MBA Clinical Leadership
MBA Engineering Leadership
MA Digital Media and Global Communications
MSc Applications of Data Science
MSc Bioinformatics
MSc International Management
MSc Mental Health
MSc Public Health
MSc Strategic Marketing Practice
MSc Urban Planning
MSc Urban Sustainability
Master of Public Administration (MPA)

Students intending to study other Masters degrees via distance learning should apply to the Birmingham Masters Scholarship provided that they meet all of the eligibility criteria.

If an awardee of the Online Birmingham Masters Scholarship transfers to an ineligible course, the Online Birmingham Masters Scholarship will be revoked and the student will no longer receive the £3,000 tuition fee waiver and will be liable for the payment of this value as well as any outstanding tuition fees.

2. Payment

The value of the scholarships offered through the Birmingham Masters Scholarship Scheme is £3,000. This will be paid as a discount on your tuition fee and no part of the award can be made as a cash payment.

If your tuition fees are charged modularly then the £3,000 will be spread across your modules as appropriate. The value of these instalments may vary based upon modular fees. For the Birmingham Masters Scholarship, the £3,000 waiver will only be applied during your first year of study.

3. Termination

In any of the circumstances set out below, the scholarship awarded through the Birmingham Masters Scholarship Scheme will be withdrawn and awardees will receive no (or no further) payments from the University:

If you permanently leave the University due to illness (whether or not following a Leave of Absence under the University’s Code of Practice on Leave of Absence procedures);
If you leave the University voluntarily for reasons other than illness;
If you are required to withdraw from the University due to disciplinary or fitness to practise proceedings;
If you fail to complete satisfactorily the requirements of your programme.

The University reserves the right to demand the repayment of any instalment or instalments (or part thereof) of the Birmingham Masters Scholarship Scheme paid to you in circumstances 2 or 3 set out above.

4. Leave of Absence

In the event that you take, or are required to take, a Leave of Absence during the academic year any Birmingham Masters Scholarship Scheme payments still due will be suspended until you return from your Leave of Absence and re-register as a normally registered student with the University.

Upon re-registering you will be paid the balance of any instalments due from the academic year when the Leave of Absence was taken.

If you fail to return to the University after a Leave of Absence then the Birmingham Masters Scholarship Scheme will be terminated and you will receive no (or no further) payments from the University, as outlined above.