Tips to get an EU and international student scholarship, grant or bursary

At the Univeristy of Nottingham, we offer a range of undergraduate scholarships for international students from all countries. We also welcome students funded by external scholarships.

Undergraduate Excellence Awards

Our scholarships support high-achieving scholars from around the world who canput their Nottingham degree to great use in their careers.

Each awards covers a contribution towards tuition fees in the first year of an undergraduate degree programme at Nottingham.

Applications for 2022 entry have now closed.

Regions covered:

• Africa
• Americas
• ASEAN and Oceania
• Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
• East Asia
• Europe
• Middle East and Turkey
• South Asia

If you are an international student currently studying in the UK, you should apply for the UK International Excellence Award.

Sports-related scholarships

• International Sporting Excellence Award
• Sports scholarships
• Deng Yaping Sports Scholarship

Make sure to check individual pages for their application deadlines.

Top Tips

If you think you are eligible for funding support above, here are our top tips to consider when applying.

1. Documents and other supporting evidence

These may need to be translated into English, to make it easy for those reviewing your application at a university in the UK.

Keep documents organised and stored in a safe place where you can easily access them – both original print copies and backed up digital versions.

2. Be persistent

Scholarships for international undergraduate students aren’t as widely available as those for postgraduate students. Those that are, are really competitive – especially if they promise a massive fee reduction, or are offered by a top university.

• If you’re unsuccessful, don’t be disheartened. Move on to the next scholarship, and stay positive.
• Set yourself goals, like applying for one scholarship per week. Also, get feedback from parents or teachers, so you’re not repeating any mistakes.

3. Ask questions

Those reviewing scholarship applications are usually very busy, but they’ll be happy to help you if you have a valid question. Make sure your question isn’t too broad or general (e.g. ‘What scholarships do you offer?’), or that the answer isn’t already easily available.

Your message should be written to a good standard of English. Ask someone you trust to check it, before you press send.

4. Watch out for scholarship scams

If a scholarship or bursary sounds too good to be true, then be careful – it may be a scam to steal your personal information or money. This is common online whenever there’s the promise of a financial award.

Watch out for warning signs, like being contacted by someone you don’t know, messages with poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation, or being asked to pay a fee upfront. 

5. If in doubt ask again

If you're unsure, our help and support team will happily assist in any queries you have, so don't worry if you want to double, or triple check something.