Am I eligible for any Masters funding?

I’ve just started to look into Masters funding and seem to be running into brick wall after brick wall, so am wondering if there is any point me carrying on?

I’m over 30, have a 2:1 rather than a 1:1 and I’m in the enviable position of having savings set aside for a mortgage (over £15,000). I am really unhappy in my job and I’m looking to study something totally different to my first degree.

Many thanks.

Reply 1

Klix88

Original post by Mature_chedder

Generally, there isn't any. Some individual unis may offer scholarships, bursaries or tuition fee reductions, so you need to do a lot of legwork on individual uni websites.

Theoretically, a £10,000 Student Finance style Masters loan starts from Sep 16. However, everything has gone very quiet on that front since the election and HE is one of the targets for more budget cuts. We may have to see how that plays out.

In any case, £10,000 won't cover fees+one year's living costs for the majority of Masters courses.

Reply 2

memomemootoo

Have you thought about applying to 4 year programmes (Masters+PhD) ? They normally include free tuition and offer a stipend of between £13,000 to £16,000 per year to cover living costs.
e.g. ones I've seen:
http://www.horizon.ac.uk/About-the-CDT
http://dtc.webscience.ecs.soton.ac.uk/study/scholarship-opportunities/

These courses are broadly aimed around digital and web-based research, but they are keen to take people with degrees from many different disciplines (and any previous work experience would be an advantage). The first year is where they introduce you to the key research and knowledge in the field, and afterwards you can tailor the research to your interests and experience. I don't know if these particular programmes spark your interest, but there may be other similar opportunities in different fields. :smile:

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 3

beautifulbigmacs

Funding is hard to obtain. You could look to see what your local unis have to offer if that would help keep costs down.

Reply 4

Mature_chedder

Thanks for your replies-I’ll do some more research.

Thanks for the links Memomemotoo but I’m hoping to do a hands-on MSc in Marine Science.

Reply 5

Rosie1422

There have been some £10,000 postgraduate bursaries available at a few English universities, offered by the HEFCE, but the deadline for a lot of them has passed - check though! I only applied to three universities with the scholarship, so others may still be open for applications?

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2014/cl,322014/ - At the bottom there's a Word document listing which universities have the scholarships, and how many they have.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 6

returnmigrant

It depends on your subject. There is far less for Humanities and Social Science than for STEM subjects.

* Ask the Dept at the Uni(s) you are interested in how previous students funded the course.

* Keep an eye on sites like http://www.jobs.ac.uk/ (bottom of the front page is 'Studentships'.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 7

Mature_chedder

Thanks for the links Rosie and Returnmigrant!

I've contacted a few universities to ask how previous students have funded the Masters courses that I'm considering applying for.