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It pays to stay

Are you a final year undergraduate student thinking of studying for a Master’s degree? If you continue your studies with BCU, you could be eligible for an Achievement Scholarship of up to £3,000

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Why stay?

A postgraduate degree will develop your skills and enhance your CV, helping you to stand out in a highly competitive job market.

We offer over 120 postgraduate Master’s courses in a wide range of specialisms and many are open to students with a variety of undergraduate degrees.

When you go on to study a postgraduate degree with us, you will continue to benefit from the £340 million we have invested in our state-of-the-art and industry standard facilities.

Why it pays to stay

If you achieve a first or second class degree at undergraduate level and wish to continue studying at Master’s level here at Birmingham City University, you could be eligible for an Achievement Scholarship of up to £3,000.

The Achievement Scholarship enables students to pursue further study by assisting with course fees and living costs.

Postgraduate loan

If you’re a UK student, you can also borrow up to £11,222 from the government to pay towards your Master’s degree. Visit their website for full details.

2020 scholarship terms and conditions

The Achievement Scholarship

The BCU Achievement Scholarship is available to all final year students who achieve a first or second class degree at undergraduate level and who wish to continue studying at Master’s level. It is aimed at encouraging you to fulfil your postgraduate potential by continuing your academic career at BCU.

Students with a first class honours degree will receive a £3,000 Scholarship towards the cost of their fees.

Students with a second class honours degree (2:1 or 2:2) will receive a £2,000 Scholarship towards the cost of their fees.

You must continue on with your postgraduate programme straight after graduation, usually within 12 months*

Graduate in January 2019: Enrol by January/February 2020

Graduate in July 2019: Enrol by January/February 2020

Graduate in January 2020: Enrol by January/February 2021

Graduate in July 2020: Enrol by January/February 2021

Unfortunately, it is not possible to defer entry to a course and carry over the scholarship to another year. We allocate funding each year and need to ensure we have funds for next year’s high-achieving graduates too.

*24 months for MArch Architecture due to the mandatory 12 months in practice 

Payment of the Scholarship

The Scholarship will be credited to your student account in three separate instalments across the year, at the same points at which Student Finance England payments are made. Students should set up a payment plan to ensure fees are taken at these points as well. The Scholarship will be applied as a credit on your fees account, thus reducing the fees owed by the same amount at each point. For September starters this would be in October, February and May.

Any credit outstanding (eg, if you receive more Scholarship funding than you owe in tuition fees because you have paid your fees in full) would be settled on completion of the course.

Eligibility

To be awarded a scholarship, you must be fulfil the following criteria:

  • Full-time and part-time students
  • UK, EU and international fee-paying students
  • Be making an application to a course which is not exempt from the Scholarship (see list below)

The Scholarship is also open to Level 7 Apprenticeship students who fulfil the criteria above. Students who joined BCU in their third year after gaining a HND are also eligible.

The Scholarship is not available for study at research level (PhDs).

The Scholarship is not open to students wishing to enrol on the following courses:

  • ACCA Course (Full Time and Part Time)
  • Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses
  • Distance Learning Programmes
  • Franchise or validated course deliver at or through partner colleges
  • Legal Practice Course (LPC)
  • PGCE and PCET
  • Postgraduate Certificates
  • Postgraduate Diplomas
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Law (PGDL)

It is not open to ERASMUS students currently studying at BCU.

If you are eligible for the Achievement Scholarship and a second BCU scholarship, we will automatically award you the larger of the two. You can only hold one Scholarship, whichever represents the greater amount.

Application Process

We have established a Fast Track application process for all BCU undergraduate students who would like to take a Master’s level degree, which you can find in your student portal (see here MySRS). It will just take a few clicks to find a suitable course and complete the Fast Track Application form.

Some courses do require a different application process:

Conservatoire programmes can be applied for via UCAS Conservatoires

Law programmes can be applied for via LawCabs

Timelines

You can apply at any time for a postgraduate course (via MySRS), even if you do not have your degree results. We encourage you to apply early since some programmes may be full due to popular demand.

When you become eligible for the Scholarship (ie you have a first or second class undergraduate honours degree from BCU and are continuing onto a postgraduate programme straight away), you will automatically be awarded the Achievement Scholarship.

The first payment will be credited to your account at the same point at which your first instalment of fees become due. The second and third instalments will follow when your second and third fee payment is due.

If you are a UK or EU student you can also apply for the government postgraduate loan of £10,906. If you qualify for Student Finance England funding, please apply as early as possible as the SFE team gets very busy with applications for undergraduate loans too at certain times of the year. Applying late may lead to a delay in receiving your loan. For more information about this, click here.

If you withdraw from the course part-way through, you will not receive any further instalments still outstanding. However, you will not have to repay any funding already paid to you.

Are you a current BCU final year student?

Apply for a postgraduate degree in under 60 seconds via our fast track application. Simply follow the guidance when applying online via the course page.

Apply now

Please note this page is for students starting their studies from September 2020.