XClose

UCL Scholarships and funding

Menu

UCL Funding Award Agreement

The UCL Funding Award Agreement: the terms under which a: scholarship, bursary, studentship, fellowship, prize administered by UCL is awarded to a recipient. This is published here per year of entry.

Please read the following UCL Funding Award Agreement for 2024 entry carefully. By accepting your funding award offer, you are agreeing to the terms of the UCL Funding Award Agreement. If you have any questions about the content of this agreement please contact studentfunding@ucl.ac.uk 

Funding Award Details
Funding Award Payments
How we process your data
Additional Requirements
Funding Award Termination
Confirmation of Acceptance
Keeping the Student Funding Office informed

Funding Award details
Within the context of this agreement ‘Funding Award’ refers to a: scholarship, bursary, studentship, fellowship, prize, or similar funding scheme, administered by UCL.

  • Please note if your admission offer is still pending or conditional, your funding award is subject to you receiving an offer of admissions and/or meeting all conditions stipulated in that offer.
  • The funding award is intended for the programme indicated on your award application and stated in your official offer email. By accepting the award offer you are agreeing to the terms of this ‘UCL Funding Award Agreement’.
  • Should your programme, department, or mode of study change you (also referred to as the funding award ‘recipient’) agree to inform us immediately so we can check whether the award can be maintained.
  • The funding award must be taken up during the academic session 2024/25 and normally by 31 January 2025 at the latest. Please contact us immediately should exceptional circumstances require you to start at a later date within the academic year.
  • The funding award cannot be deferred to start in a later academic session, nor can it be transferred to another institution. The funding award cannot be applied retrospectively and will only be effective from your first day of enrolment in the academic session 24/25 and no earlier than 23 September 2024. 
  • The funding award is tenable for the duration indicated in your official offer email. For funding awards of more than one year, your funding award will be renewed annually provided you are making good progress and you have not yet reached the final year of your programme.
  • Postgraduate Research Scholarships are tenable for years 1, 2 and 3 of your full-time research programme (or corresponding part-time equivalent). Funding may be extended to a 4th year only if you are on a 1+3 programme or if the standard length of your programme consists of 4 years of research (excluding the writing-up year).
  • Should you interrupt, withdraw or terminate your studies you must inform the Student Funding Office immediately. You may be liable to return any funds that have been overpaid. Repayment for students who interrupt may be via means of withholding, adjusting, or cancelling future payments. For further information on the repercussions of interruption or withdrawal, please contact the Student Funding Office.The award may be held in conjunction with other scholarships, as long as the total value of all the scholarships you hold does not exceed the value of full fees and a maintenance allowance equivalent to the stipend rates published by the UK Research Councils (2023/24 rate: £27,808 - 2024/25 rate is to be confirmed). 
  • UCL centrally funded scholarships (UCL-RES, UCL-ROS, UCL-RXD) for research degrees allow up to 13 weeks of paid sick leave, up to 6 months paid maternity leave and up to 10 days paid paternity leave within the duration of your award. Requests must be supported by the appropriate documentary evidence and we must be notified before the interruption period begins. Please contact us directly for further information. 
  • You are obliged to inform the Student Funding Office of any other scholarship funding you receive so that they may determine and confirm whether the multiple scholarships may be held at the same time. Failure to do so may lead to the termination of your award.
  • UCL reserves an absolute discretion to make or not to make an award, and after having made an award to modify, cancel, or withdraw the award, or to withhold any payments remaining to be made thereunder, as the circumstances of the case may seem to them to require. 

Funding Award Payments
Funding award payments are only made if the recipient is fully enrolled on the programme of study at UCL for which the funding was awarded.

If you accept the funding award offer and the award contains a tuition fee element, the Student Funding Office will inform UCL Student Fees of the fee funding granted before you enrol (or re-enrol). If you have any issues over the fee invoice at enrolment or at any point during your studies, please inform the Student Funding Office. 

Where funding awards include a maintenance allowance element that is provided by UCL this will be paid to you as follows:

•    Postgraduate Research
Payment will be made in 12 monthly instalments – you will be contacted with the payment schedule in due course.

•    Other study levels
Payment will be made in three equal termly instalments*. These payments will be made on the following dates in each year:

Payment 1 (September):within 10 working days of the start of the first term/ from the date of (re)enrolment/from the date you were notified of the award -  whichever is later
Payment 2 (January): within 10 working days of the start of the second term
Payment 3 (April): within 10 working days of the start of the third term

*awards of £1000 or less will be paid in one instalment in Term 1

In order for us to make payments by direct transfer (BACS) to your UK bank account, you will need to log your bank details on Portico. To do so you will need to go to the “My Money” section and select the “View/update your bank details” option and enter them under the “Studentship Stipend” heading. Please ensure that a reference is entered; the reference is for your information only and is the wording that will appear on your bank statement when the stipend is paid in.

An annual research cost allowance of £1,200 for full-time students (£600 for part-time) is included within the Research Excellence Scholarship, Research Excellence Scholarship for Cross-disciplinary Training and Research Opportunity Scholarship. You will be contacted with instructions on how to claim this allowance in due course. 

An allowance for conference costs is available to recipients of the Research Opportunity Scholarship only. This allowance is a one-off payment over the duration of the award. You will be contacted with the instructions on how to claim this allowance in due course.

How we process your data
UCL’s privacy notices for current and prospective students set out how any personal data we collect will be processed.  The full notice for current students can be found here. The full notice for prospective students can be found here.

The information provided in your application was processed by the UCL Student Funding Office for the purposes of determining your eligibility for financial support / a place on an award scheme / scholarships programme. The information you provided may also be shared with other UCL departments for information verification purposes.

The financial support you have been granted may be offered in partnership with an external sponsor. The sponsor may have been involved in the selection or awarding process and/or may request confirmation of the support you have been awarded. They may also ask for progress updates on you. By accepting this award you are providing your consent for us to share your personal and academic information with them. We will only do so where this is necessary to maintain your application and award. Any data sharing will be carried out with due regard to our duties as a ‘data controller’ within the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Our legal basis of processing this disclosure of information will be Legitimate Interests.

If you provided special category personal data (for example, information about your ethnicity, health or disabilities), we need your consent to use this data. By accepting this award, you consent to UCL and its external partnership sponsors using your special category personal data for the purposes set out above. You may withdraw your consent at any time by emailing studentfunding@ucl.ac.uk. Please note that this may result in your application and/or award being withdrawn if we are no longer able to determine your eligibility for support.

The UK GDPR provides you with a number of rights concerning your personal data. Please visit the University Data Protection webpages for further information. If you have any queries, concerns or complaints about how UCL uses your personal data, please contact the UCL Data Protection Office at data-protection@ucl.ac.uk (please see our FAQs for general queries). 

Additional requirements for funding award holders
If you are a funding award recipient funded by an external donor, you may be required to write a thank you letter to your donor each year. You may also be required to attend an event(s), meet with your donor (virtually or in person) or provide feedback arranged by UCL’s Office of Vice-President (Advancement) (OVPA). If you are invited, or are asked to participate, it is required that you attend, except for in exceptional circumstances. These events – of which there will only be a few each year – can provide you with an opportunity to thank the donor(s) funding the award you have received.

Publicity

UCL may from time to time want to use details and photos of funding award recipients (taken at the events) in publications and on their website in order to promote UCL. We may therefore contact you to obtain permission to use your details/photos in future. 
 

Funding Award Termination
UCL reserves the right to terminate your funding award in certain cases, if, for example, you:
•    breach UCL’s Code of Conduct for Students
•    are guilty of misconduct under the Disciplinary Code
•    do not inform us of any other funding you are also receiving
•    fail to enroll onto your programme on time without discussing it with us
•    do not meet the requirements of the award as stated in your official award email
•    fail to maintain sufficient academic progress through your course
•    do not inform us of changes to your UCL registration and/or course
•    withdraw your consent to share information with UCL Student Funding and our external partnership sponsors if we are no longer able to determine your eligibility for support
•    fail to meet UKVI Tier 4 Visa requirements (if applicable)
 

Confirmation of acceptance
Please see your official "funding award offer" email to complete and submit the online ‘Funding Award Response Form’ accepting these terms and conditions, within the timeframe specified. If you are unable to take up the award or your studies at UCL, and have to decline our offer, it is equally important to inform us without delay, so a reserve candidate can benefit.

Keeping the Student Funding Office informed of any changes or problems
Please contact the Student Funding Office if you have any problems or questions, especially if you are unable to take up your studies and funding award as expected, if your start date changes, or if you are unable to continue your planned programme of study for any considerable period of time, for example for reasons of illness.  You must also inform us of any changes to your programme/course, such as subject, study mode or duration of study, or of any funding you hold in additition to your UCL funding award.  

Should you at any time have any questions regarding your award, please contact the Student Funding Office at studentfunding@ucl.ac.uk