"Bursaries and scholarships provide additional financial help to ensure that no-one need be deterred from going to university on financial grounds. There's a wide range of means tested and merit based awards on offer and these differ depending where you go, so it's now more important than ever to make sure you research the courses and the universities or colleges you're interested in before you apply - you may find that there is a bursary or scholarship available to you – Courses and Careers is one of the many useful resources available to help you do this."
Sir Martin Harris – Director, offa
What is a Bursary?
Besides the loans and grants available for you to use when going to university to study for a degree, all universities offer non-repayable bursaries to those from less wealthy families. These were set up when the universities became able to charge higher tuition fees and are designed to supplement the loans and grants system. It is often wrongly assumed that all bursaries and scholarships are means tested, some are not and available to all.
Who Can Get a Bursary?
Many universities also offer non-repayable bursaries and scholarships to all students based on a variety of other criteria, from academic excellence, to equal opportunity, to widening ethnic minority participation.
Similarly, many universities offer students non-repayable bursaries to apply to degrees that they want more students to study.This often includes so-called shortage subjects such as engineering, the sciences and technology.You should check out any university you are interested in going to, as to what bursaries and scholarships are available.
Why Should I Look into Bursaries?
Bearing in mind that student debt and the expense of studying at university is a topic that many of you find daunting, then you would be mad not to see what extra financial support you could arrange for yourself.
Where Can I Find Out More?
The Bursary Searcher we have put on this site is designed to let you research bursaries and scholarships by giving you the links on university and college websites where you can find this information.This is a fairly full list, but may not be complete as it is based on what the proving universities and colleges have on their sites.
We have set out the universities in national groups for England, Scotland and Wales, (as well as Regions for English universities).
