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Postgraduate funding - where to begin?

Hi guys, I am looking at doing these 5 courses at postgraduate level for the year beginning 2014/15:

University of Cambridge - Mphil - Politics and International Relations
University of Oxford - Mphil - International Relations
Kings College London - MA - Terrorism, Security and Society
University College London - MSc - Security Studies
University of St. Andrews - MLitt - International Security Studies

Can anybody point me in roughly the right direction of what types of funding I can look for, not just from the universities but also charities etc, and give me an idea of what is available out there. I literally have no idea where to begin!

Cheers!


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Reply 1
These two stickied threads at the top of the Postgrad forum might be worth a read:

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1067807

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1659511
If you are currently at Uni, there should be some sort of advisory/info session offered by a relevant dept or your careers service on this whole area.

Social Science postgrad is funded by the ESRC - http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/postgraduates/

A good site to keep an eye on is www.jobs.ac.uk - on the initial page scroll down to 'Studentships'. Most are advertised Nov to March with an April closing date - start your application early, it takes much longer to get it all together than you'd think.

Its also worth you asking each Dept where you hope to study how previous students have funded the course. This will alert them to the fact that you need funding and they may then identify Dept ££ or tell you about alternative sources.
Also worth noting that funding for a stand alone masters, as opposed to funding for a 1+ 3 programme is quite hard to come by, so don't be surprised if you find very little help...
Reply 4
Original post by adamc07
Hi guys, I am looking at doing these 5 courses at postgraduate level for the year beginning 2014/15:

University of Cambridge - Mphil - Politics and International Relations
University of Oxford - Mphil - International Relations
Kings College London - MA - Terrorism, Security and Society
University College London - MSc - Security Studies
University of St. Andrews - MLitt - International Security Studies

Can anybody point me in roughly the right direction of what types of funding I can look for, not just from the universities but also charities etc, and give me an idea of what is available out there. I literally have no idea where to begin!

Cheers!


Posted from TSR Mobile


For Cambridge and Oxford specifically you need to go onto each of the individual college websites, one by one, and look at their info on funding for postgrads. There isn't really a reliable shortcut to this. Colleges differ very much in terms of what funding is available. Some have very specific awards for very particular subjects. Some have general MPhil level funding available. You really have to check each case. In addition to that, there are University level funds to explore.
All of this is over and above the information mentioned in previous posts about UK postgrad funding generally.
Original post by returnmigrant

Social Science postgrad is funded by the ESRC - http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/postgraduates/

A good site to keep an eye on is www.jobs.ac.uk - on the initial page scroll down to 'Studentships'. Most are advertised Nov to March with an April closing date - start your application early, it takes much longer to get it all together than you'd think.


Just to add to this good advice, both the ESRC and jobs.ac.uk are primarily targeted at PhD students (the ESRC only funds MAs that lead to a PhD). OP, as you haven't mentioned doing a PhD, just be aware that these may be of limited help if you don't plan to go on to one afterwards. Standalone MA funding is thinner on the ground and usually comes in the form of departmental part fee-waivers and so on.

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