Scholarship: Alumni Undergraduate Scholarships

Type: Undergraduate

Value: £5,000

Location: United Kingdom

Who can Apply:  Available for Students in United Kingdom only

About the Scholarship

We invite students provisionally offered a place to study at Aston University for 2021 to apply for an Alumni Undergraduate Scholarship worth £5,000.

We will award these scholarships to students with amazing ambitions, students wanting to create a better world through community activity or business ideas, or to those who have overcome significant barriers to study at Aston.

Whilst they are only open to households with an income of less than £18,000 they will not be awarded on financial need or academic achievements alone. We want to hear your story.

Worth £5,000 (paid in instalments), our UK undergraduate means-tested scholarships are of higher value than other University Scholarships available at Aston.

The scholarships are non-repayable and are in addition to the financial support you can receive from the government (such as the tuition fee loan or maintenance loan).

Alongside the scholarships, you’ll have access to one-to-one support and advice sessions, mentoring opportunities, advice and guidance for want-to-be-entrepreneurs and networking events through the Enrichment Programme.

The scholarships are available thanks to the generous support from former students at Aston, as well as friends and commercial partners of Aston.

Requirements

• You must be starting a new full time undergraduate degree programme at Aston University between 1st September 2021 and the 31st August 2022.
• You must be classified as a home fee payer and in receipt of UK student support funding.
• You must be qualified to receive student support funding as part of the finance arrangements for new students starting their degree programmes between 1st September 2021 and the 31st August 2022.
• If you have your fees paid by a sponsor you will not be eligible for an Aston Scholarship (eg a government grant to cover all or part of the tuition fees or a scholarship directly from business).
• You must come from a household with an annual income which has been assessed as being £18,000 per year or below. (Note that you can apply for this scholarship before your household income assessment has been finalised by Student Finance England).
• You will only be eligible to be considered for an Aston Undergraduate Scholarship approved on household income for an academic year if you have made an application to be income assessed fro the same year by Student Finance England, Student Finance Wales, Student Finance Northern Ireland or Student Awards Agency for Scotland. You can apply for a scholarship before your eligibility assessment has been finalised by the relevant awarding body.
• For 2021 entry, your income assessment, carried out by the Student Loans Company (SLC), must be finalised by 24 September 2021, with all required evidence submitted and received to SLC by 10 September 2021. This is so that the University is able to confirm you are eligible to receive any scholarship you have been provisionally awarded.
• Apply by the deadline of 5th July 2021

Please remember there are a limited number of scholarships. Meeting the eligibility criteria and being able to apply does not guarantee that you will receive an award.

Selection Criteria

As well as meeting all of the above eligibility criteria, you must meet at least one of the below selection criteria. Please note, priority for scholarships will be given to those students who meet more than one of the selection criteria and whose essay questions are chosen by our assessors:

• Students who have progressed to Aston after successfully completing access routes (such as Pathway to Healthcare, Pathway to STEM, Pathway to Law, Pathway to Business, or a Foundation Year).
• Students from a home where neither parent has attended University (either home or abroad).
• Students whose studies have been disrupted by circumstances in their personal, social or domestic lives.
• Students who live in a geographical area with low levels of progression onto higher education.
• Students who have experienced time in local authority care or kinship care or who are estranged from both of their parents.
• Students who have a disability or are in receipt of a personal independence payment.
• Students who have recognised as a refugee by the UK government, or have been granted humanitarian protection status, or students who are the partner or child of someone who has been granted refugee or humanitarian protection status.
• Students from an underrepresented group (Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities, refugees, children of military families).

For full information, see Aston Universities Home Undergraduate Scholarship Eligibility Criteria 2021-22. This criteria provides further details for home undergraduate scholarships and the amounts awarded at each stage of the academic year and the implications of withdrawal or leave of absence on students’ eligibility for scholarships.

Essay Assessment

When assessing the essay questions, we will be looking for scholars who demonstrate exceptional qualities in areas which could include ambitious career goals, entrepreneurial qualities, wanting to create a better world through community activity or business ideas, overcoming significant barriers, demonstrating resilience or academic performance.

We also want to hear how you envisage the Scholarship will make a difference to your University experience and ambitions.

Key Dates

• 10 June – Application opens
• 5 July – Application forms close
• August – all provisional, reserve and unsuccessful applicants will be contacted with the result of their application
• September/October – income assessments finalised
• October/November – first scholarship payment

For more information please click here