Post grad newbie... funding advice?!~

Funding a Masters is quite tricky as there aren't that many scholarships/bursaries around so most students fund their course using a variety of sources.

The UK government offer a Masters Loan (https://www.gov.uk/masters-loan). For 2020/21, the amount was £11,222, paid in 3 instalments throughout the year. It's repayable in the same was as the undergraduate student loan and is administered by Student Finance England. In my experience a lot of Masters students (myself included) use the loan to pay their fees and then fund their living expenses from a combination of savings, part-time work, and small bursaries/scholarships.

In some professions, employers will fund or part-fund Masters degrees if the qualification is directly related to your job. Given that you're in Civil Engineering it might be worth seeing if there is an employer - or potential employer - who might do this as then your employer would pay your course fees and you'd probably still be earning a part-time wage to help with living costs. Most employer funded Masters programmes do tend to be part-time in my experience though as you'll be working alongside studying.

Bursaries and scholarships wise, there are some guides to major charitable funders and schemes on Prospects (https://www.prospects.ac.uk/postgrad...graduate-study) and Scholarship Search (https://www.postgraduatesearch.com/funding).

You should also check individual university websites as a lot of universities offer fee discounts or small bursaries depending on your circumstances. At Keele, for example, we offer fee discounts to alumni as well as to care leavers and estranged students, and to those who achieved a first class degree at undergraduate level (https://www.keele.ac.uk/study/postgr...olarshipsukeu/). Some universities may also advertise specific funded Masters programmes - for example, Keele are currently advertising an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science that is co-funded by the Office for Students and offers up to £10,000 scholarships for students from underrepresented groups.

Hope that helps!

Amy Louise