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Confusion about conditions of bursary/scholarships

Hi all,

I am currently completing a maths PGCE in England on a scholarship from IMA (paid through bursary system). I am currently trying to make up my mind whether I want to teach in England next year, return to my home country or do a year travelling. However I don't even know if all of these options are available to me because I can't find the terms and conditions for the bursary or scholarships anywhere. I've heard that you would need to teach in England for a few years after recieving the funding which would make sense. However a lot of people I've talked to seem to think this isn't the case and people seem to casually drop out of teaching casually during the pgce and nqt year, which I thought wouldn't happen as frequently if you owed a lot of money as a result of dropping out. If anyone has any info on this please let me know. Thanks :smile:

Reply 1

Pierson

From the IMA's FAQs document:

If awarded a Scholarship and during my ITT course I decide not to complete it, do I have to repay the Scholarship?The Scholarships are paid by the Department for Education and in the same way that the Government bursary is paid; in equal monthly instalments for the duration of your course and administered by your ITT provider. If you decided to not complete the PGCE, then the payments to you are stopped, but you do not repay the funding that you have already received.

http://www.ima.org.uk/_db/_documents/FAQs.pdf

The same applies if you choose not to go into teaching. As you are being paid a bursary to support you whilst you are training, you don't have to repay any money that has been paid to you if you quit at any point.