St Andrews - GREAT Scholarship

Value of award (per year)

Eight scholarships of £10,000 towards tuition fees. One award will be allocated per eligible country.

Duration of award

This award is available for 1 year of postgraduate study.

At what stage of my course application can I apply for this scholarship?

Please apply for the award after you have submitted your application for a place at St Andrews. You do not need to wait until you have received an offer of a place before applying for the award.

Additional criteria

You must have applied for a taught postgraduate Masters course: MLitt, MRes, MSc.

Non-Masters postgraduate programmes, including the Graduate Diploma, are not eligible for this scholarship. Online, distance learning and courses delivered at a Scottish university campus overseas are not eligible for the scholarship.

Applicants must meet the English language requirement of their course or have started a 10-week pre-sessional English course by 30 June 2025.

References

You are required to provide one academic reference and one personal reference.

The academic reference may be the same as one of the academic references submitted with your study application. If you do not have access to those references, instead please upload a holding document, such as a Word document, with the name of the referee. The reference will then be uploaded by us after you have submitted the scholarship application.

The personal reference should be written by a non-family member who will serve as a personal character reference. This could be, for example, an academic advisor who is aware of your personal attributes, a current or former employer, or a senior staff member in an organisation where you volunteered.

If your referees would prefer to send the references directly to us, please ask them to email the reference to pgscholarships@st-andrews.ac.uk, and to include your name and the name of the scholarship for which it is intended, before the scholarship deadline date. When you apply for the scholarship, in place of the reference, please upload a holding document with the referee's name, and a note that the reference will be sent directly by them. The document will then be added after you have submitted the application, as long as we receive it by the application deadline.

Please note: We do not recommend using an academic reference in place of the personal reference, as this may not meet the requirements of the scholarship and may be detrimental to your application. Please only do this if you are sure that it can serve as a personal reference, for example, if it is written by an academic who is familiar with and refers specifically to your non-academic qualities.

How to apply

This scholarship is available through the British Council GREAT Scholarship application in the Scholarships and Funding catalogue, in the Scholarships and Funding section of My Application.

After you have applied to a postgraduate taught Masters programme for the 2025-2026 academic year, you must allow 2 working days for processing and issue of your log-in details before you can apply for this scholarship.

Scholarship application form guidance

Terms and conditions

Please read the University of St Andrews scholarships terms and conditions.

If applying to this scholarship, please be aware of the following requirements:

• The selection committee seeks applicants who are gifted students with academic excellence.
• The successful scholars will be expected to fulfil an ambassadorial role and represent the University at a number of events.
• When completing the application, you should include your reasons for applying for the scholarship, explaining how you would expect to benefit from the opportunities the award provides, and describing how you think you might contribute to the community while studying at the University of St Andrews. 
• Recipients of the scholarship will be expected to engage with the British Council as well as our Student Ambassadors Scheme. Work through the scheme is varied, but will likely entail engaging in outreach activities and assisting our Admissions staff with events aimed at prospective students and offer holders to help share your experience of being a student at St Andrews.
• As part of the application you will also be required to provide one personal and one academic or professional reference, so two references in total. These can be in addition to your course application references, but must be uploaded before the deadline. Please email pgscholarships@st-andrews.ac.uk if you have any queries.

It is extremely important that you apply to us for funding giving complete and accurate information. Your course and funding application are not linked and applying for funding in no way impedes your course application.

When will I know the outcome?

The outcome of your scholarship application will be available on View my applications in the Scholarships and Funding section of My Application by late June 2025.