University of Sunderland Scholarship 2024/25

Overview

The University of Sunderland recognises the academic achievements of students applying to our undergraduate courses. To acknowledge this, we will be awarding up to 130 scholarships of £3,000; £2,400 StudyPlus credit and £600 cash, awarded in three termly instalments during academic years 1, 2 and 3.

Awards will be made to up to 130 students with the highest increase in their academic achievement between their GCSE grades and their Level 3 qualification results. This is to reward students who may not have achieved the grades they expected in their GCSEs but are back on track with their Level 3 qualifications. For example, A Levels, T Levels or BTECs.

Who's eligible?

1. You must be a 'Home', 'Refugee', or 'Overseas Island' student on an eligible course

The Government classes all students as ‘Home’ or ‘International’. This status determines which tuition fees you pay, and which scholarships and bursaries you are eligible to receive.

Overseas Island; Isle of Man and the Channel Islands students are eligible for this scholarship.

Refugee students are eligible for this scholarship.

EU students with UK Settled Status at the time of application are eligible for this scholarship.

You must be a first-year student applying to commence your studies in autumn 2024 based at City Campus, Sir Tom Cowie at St Peter’s Campus, Dance City, or the Northern Academy of Music Education (NAME).

If you are an ‘International’ student, you are not eligible for this scholarship.

Students who already hold an undergraduate degree are not eligible for this scholarship.

2. You must apply for and meet the conditions of your offer, then successfully enrol onto and study a relevant course

See our comprehensive list of full-time undergraduate eligible courses.

You must have studied your Level 3 qualifications (i.e. A Levels, T Levels or BTECs) in the same academic year as applying for your university course.

The University of Sunderland will use your five highest scoring GCSEs and rank your grades against your Level 3 qualifications. This process will be used to establish those students with the highest increase in their academic achievement.

Your GCSE qualifications will only be considered if they have been awarded in the last three years; 2021/22, 2022/23 or 2023/24. This is to ensure fair awarding to all scholarship applicants.

When applying for this scholarship you must provide evidence of your FIVE highest scoring GCSE grades to accompany your application.

Only GCSE qualification grades will be accepted for this scholarship application.

It is your responsibility to ensure that this evidence is correctly provided at the time of your scholarship application.

Some University of Sunderland courses are not eligible for the scholarship due to the additional funding that students studying these courses are eligible to receive. These include:

• Medicine MBChB (see our courses eligible for bursaries for further information)

Courses where students are in receipt of the NHS Learning Support Fund:

• Midwifery
• All Nursing courses
• Occupational Therapy
• Physiotherapy
• Paramedic Science and Out of Hospital Care

Courses where students are in receipt of an NHS bursary:

• Social Work

Postgraduate courses where undergraduate fees are charged or where students are in receipt of bursaries and scholarships for teacher training:

• PGCE/PCET courses

You are not eligible for this scholarship if you are in receipt of a Troops to Teaching Bursary.

You are not eligible for this scholarship if you have been funded by the Enhanced Learning Credits Administration Service (ELCAS).

How to apply

If you are starting an undergraduate course in autumn 2024, you can apply for this scholarship from March 2024. The deadline for applications is Wednesday 31 July 2024 at 12 noon.

You can apply for this scholarship via your myApplication account. We will provide information to eligible course applicants detailing how to apply for this scholarship when the application window opens at the start of March 2024.

There are 130 scholarships available. Please note that applying for a scholarship does not guarantee that you will be awarded it.

Awarding the scholarships

Successful scholarship applicants will be notified via email to inform them of their provisional award in September 2024. Following enrolment onto an eligible University of Sunderland course and confirmation of satisfactory evidence, scholarship awards will be confirmed. You must give consent to the Student Loans Company to share your financial information with the University of Sunderland.

Where scholarship applications meeting the criteria exceed the number of awards available, then the awards will be allocated based on annual household income. Applicants with the lowest household incomes will be considered the highest priority. In the event of any duplicated annual household income values, POLAR4, Quintile 1 and 2 data will be used to rank successful recipients.

The scholarship award will be made in equal instalments as follows:

If you are awarded a scholarship, you can spend your StudyPlus credit on materials to support your studies including books, stationery, study tools and more from the StudyPlus online store. You can also top up your account with additional funds to spend on a wide range of learning resources and everyday living items that StudyPlus offers.

Your StudyPlus credit will be made available on the fifth working days of November, February and April each academic year.

You will receive the cash element of the scholarship in three termly instalments throughout the academic year, paid via your StudyPlus account.

The cash element of your scholarship is intended to support you with any of the following:

• Travel costs – including public transport, petrol, vehicle costs such as insurance, maintenance, other costs such as parking, tolls.
• Digital – IT equipment including laptops, tablets, specialist software and digital connectivity such as broadband costs.
• Childcare costs – related to additional childcare needs for attending university and/or placement.
• Other expenses - such as books, specialist equipment and essential course materials.

If you have not registered on your course within three weeks of the course start date or provided sufficient evidence of eligibility, the scholarship will be withdrawn and offered to another eligible student.

The scholarship award is conditional on you maintaining satisfactory engagement and making academic progress on your course of study in the reasonable opinion of the Programme Team. If you withdraw from your course before receiving a scholarship payment, the scholarship offer will be withdrawn. If you withdraw after a scholarship payment is made, the University will not seek reimbursement however you will not receive any further instalments.

If you do not supply us with the required information and the scholarship is not awarded by November 2024, the scholarship offer will be withdrawn.

If you transfer to another course and repeat a year, or if you repeat a year of the same course, the scholarship will not be paid in the repeated year. However, the scholarship payment will continue once you progress onto the following level(s) of study.

If you take a Leave of Absence (LOAB) in academic year 2024/25, you will be eligible to receive the remainder of your award when you return, up until the end of academic year 2025/26.

If you have an outstanding university debt of £50 or more, you will not receive the scholarship until the debt has been cleared.

The University agrees to pay to you, the student, all scholarships, and payments that are awarded and due to you whilst you are on your course of study. If a scholarship or bursary payment is made to you in error, the University reserves the right to recover any awards or overpayments from you, the student. This may result in you being asked to repay an award if it was paid to you in error. It is also the responsibility of you, the student, to ensure that all awards and payments received are accurate. Any payment discrepancies will be rectified by the University or the student.

These payments will be made into a UK bank account of your choice. It is your responsibility to enter your bank details onto your myApplication account so that these payments can then be made to you.

If you fail to enter your bank details to enable the payment to be made to you before your course end date (or your date of leaving your course of study if earlier), these scholarships and payments will be withdrawn and will no longer be due.

All StudyPlus credit can be rolled forward to the next academic year(s) up until the time of the end of your course (or date of leaving the course if earlier).

As part of the admissions process, the University will verify various aspects of a UCAS or direct application to determine that you should be classed as ‘Home’. The following criteria will be verified:

• Declared nationality
• Country of birth
• Area of permanent residence
• Date of entry into the UK (if applicable)
• Location of previous education provider

Disclaimer

Every effort is made to ensure that all details included in these guidance notes are correct at the time of writing. They are intended to act as an information source only for potential scholarship applicants and in no way should they be considered legally binding or guarantee an award of a scholarship.

The University will not be deemed to be in breach of any legal or contractual obligations due to changes to eligibility criteria beyond the reasonable control of the University. It should therefore be noted that these guidance notes are regularly reviewed and are naturally subject to change from time to time sometimes without notice. The University’s decision is final.

Published: 27 November 2023