Propose a new funding award for students (a scholarship or a bursary)

Find out how to submit your proposal to the Student Funding Office (SFO). After checking the proposal we will offer advice and guidance about establishing your scholarship.

Before you start

If your scholarship is funded by a donor please ensure you have already contacted the Office Vice Provost Advancement to carry out due diligence.
This task is part of the "Establish a new scholarship" process

1. Decide on the rationale for your scholarship proposal Please ensure you have read the information below before completing your funding award proposal.

What is the rational for the your scholarship proposal? As part of a proposal, please identify the institutional or faculty strategic aims the scholarship is designed to support. For example, my scholarship is designed to address the under-representation of female students in engineering. By clearly identifying the change you hope to effect and corresponding KPI's, you can then measure the impact and performance of the scheme.
You can also refer to the Scholarships and Student Funding Strategy below.

UCL Scholarship and Student Funding Strategy 2018-23

Guidance on setting up funding award schemes

2. Determine the value and number of awards

Fully funded awards is UCL preferred schoalrship offering. This means the scholarship covers both maintenance (i.e. living costs) and fees. It gives students the security they need to dedicate their attention to their studies and take full advantage of UCL life.

Where this level of support isn’t possible, an award that covers maintenance in full is preferred. We use an estimated average weekly living cost, for a single student living independently in London, of £390 per week. This equates to around £15,000 per year for an undergraduate student (based on a 39-week year), and £20,000 annually for a postgraduate student (based on a 52-week year).

If your funding is from a donor UCL Advancement can support in conversations with donors about the level of support, and why full funding is important, particularly when an award is aimed at students from low-income and low-participation backgrounds. Not all awards will meet this criterion, and we would advise weighing up carefully the value of the award against the administrative effort required to award it.

As an alternative to setting up a specific new award, donors who cannot fully fund an award can be directed towards the One UCL Fund. The One UCL Fund pools donor support in a fund to meet students’ emerging needs at speed, from awards for prospective students from lower-income backgrounds, to hardship funding for current students in unexpected financial difficulty.

Alternatively, if a donor wishes to support a specific department/faculty, and it hasn’t been possible to agree terms for an award, it may be appropriate to suggest they make the gift to support the area generally, as it can then be used alongside other funds to support the activity of the department/faculty.

3. Do I need to carry out an Equality Impact Assessment on the funding award I am proposing? If your award has eligibility criteria which use any of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, please complete this step.

Please read:

1) What equality legislation means for you; and

2) Positive action through bursaries, scholarships and prizes.

Complete the Equality Checklist below. The checklist is a tool for you to see whether you will need to carry out an Equality Impact Assessment on the award you are proposing. You are not required to submit this document to the Student Funding Office.

Equality Checklist

4. Submit your funding award proposal

Fill out your funding award proposal form

Propose a new funding award for students (a scholarship or a bursary)

Before you start

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