There many funding opportunities open to home and international students. These include:
Home/EU students
Career Development Loans
This loan is a joint initiative between the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and three participating banks - Barclays, the Co-operative, and the Royal Bank of Scotland. It allows you to borrow up to a maximum of £8,000 (although you will not necessarily be awarded the maximum amount) and will consider assisting towards the cost of tuition fees, books, course equipment, and travel.
The Career Development Loan is a
deferred repayment bank loan to help you pay for vocational learning
or education that lasts no longer than two years. The Learning and
Skills Council (LSC) pays the interest on your loan while you're
learning, and for up to one month afterwards. You then repay the loan
to the bank over an agreed period at a fixed interest rate.
Further information is available from each of the participating banks, or from the DfEE website.
Another site which you could take a look at is Student Money. This is a site set up by HotCourses that gives advise and advertises funding for Home and Overseas students.
Overseas students
Applicants may be eligible for awards for study abroad offered by government or private sources in their own country.
The Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO)
The FCO funds over 3,000 scholarships a year in 150 countries. The FCO also funds two other programmes: British Marshall Scholarships (for US students) and the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (for Commonwealth students).
The Fulbright Programme
This aims to promote mutual understanding between the US and other countries. Under the graduate student programme for US citizens, approximately 20 scholarships are awarded each year
See Fulbright.
British Council
The British Council is a UK organisation dedicated to education and cultural development through out the world. They offer information on how to study in the UK and also offer funding opportunities to students and help in co-ordinating professional sponsorship. The British Council site also has a good international students' scholarships and bursary search engine which can be accessed at http://www.educationuk.org/scholarships/.
Chevening Scholarships
In order to be considered applicants must meet the following criteria:
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A graduate with proven academic skills.
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Committed to return to their country and contribute to the socio-economic development of their country through implementing new skills and knowledge acquired in the UK.
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Be able to show at interview that they possess the personal qualities to benefit from their scholarship and use it to succeed in their chosen career.
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Have a clear idea how their scholarship will benefit their country on their return.
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Have good English Language skills and must have an IELTS of 6.5 for admission onto Postgraduate courses.
Please refer to the country page of the country you will be applying to for further details regarding specific criteria and eligibility, which vary from country to county (http://www.chevening.com/home/index.html).
IIEPassport Study Abroad Funding
This website helps you find funding to study in destinations around the world. The database is searchable by country and field of study. Visit http://www.studyabroadfunding.org for more details.
