Scholarships and bursaries

Cumbria Bursaries - first year undergraduate students 

About The Cumbria Bursary

The Cumbria Bursary is our targeted financial support package for 1st year ‘home’ undergraduate students studying a qualifying course who are commencing their studies in the 2025/26 academic year.  It is a non-repayable bursary designed to support students with a household income of less than £25,000. 

The Cumbria Bursary is provided through a fixed number of allocated awards and uses a scored prioritisation process to impartially rank all eligible applicants (with household incomes of less than £25,000 per annum). We award bursaries to those with the highest scores.  

These awards are worth £1,000 per year of full-time study or £500 per year of part-time study, for a maximum of 5 years (part-time) for students entering onto full time or substantive part-time* undergraduate programmes. 

A proportion of our Cumbria Bursaries will be allocated specifically to students who are aged 21 and over on the 1st September 2025, who also meet the eligibility criteria outlined below.  

*Part-time students must be studying at least 50% of a full-time equivalent course and registered on a minimum three-year course. 

How does it work?

You do not need to apply separately for the Cumbria Bursary; simply applying for your student funding through your funding body will enable us to assess your eligibility alongside the information you provide on your UCAS application form.  It is important that you apply for income - assessed student finance through your funding body (e.g. Student Finance England) as early as possible.  In your application, both you and your sponsors must give consent to share financial information with your Higher Education Institution.  

All bursaries are subject to specific eligibility criteria (please see below).  Where there are more eligible students than awards available, these will be allocated according to the prioritisation criteria (outlined below). 

Eligibility criteria 

• Student is entering into year 1 or integrated foundation year of a specified undergraduate degree at the University of Cumbria.
  
  
• Student has a household income of £25,000 or less as assessed by Student Finance England, Student Finance Wales, Student Finance Northern Ireland or Student Awards Agency Scotland. Assessed by funding provider before 3rd October 2025. 

 

Cumbria Bursaries will not be available to students who are:

• studying less than 50 credits per year
   
• already holding a HE qualification e.g. Cert HE, HND or Foundation Degree (Care Leavers will be exempted).
  
  
• undertaking a postgraduate qualification, including PGCE courses 

Prioritisation criteria

Usually, there are more students who meet the criteria than there are awards available. Bursaries will be allocated according to the following prioritisation criteria: 

• Your household income 
• You are a Care Leaver or Estranged from your family* 
• You have declared a disability on your UCAS form 
• You are from an area where not many people go into Higher Education 

*You must be identified as a Care Leaver or Estranged from your family by the Student Loans Company.  

How do I know if I’ve received a Cumbria Bursary?

Cumbria Bursaries for 2025/26 will be allocated to eligible students after 3rd October 2025. 

Successful candidates are notified in writing during October and November.  Letters sent via the Student Loans Company are forwarded to the correspondence address given on your Student Finance application and accessible online via your student finance account. 

If I am unsuccessful, can I appeal?

There are a limited number of Cumbria Bursary awards available, allocated at the beginning of the first year of an eligible three or four year degree course.  Often students meet the criteria for the Cumbria Bursary award but do not receive an award as there are usually more eligible students than awards available. 

New students are scored against the prioritisation criteria to determine who receives an award. To maximise the beneficial impact of awards, and to maintain consistency, each student will be scored once only. Bursaries are only awarded to students in Level 3 or Level 4 of their course, though the bursary is paid in each year of study.  The decision on granting Cumbria Bursary Awards made by the panel is final.  

If you believe that the process of scoring you for a Cumbria Bursary may have been adversely effected by errors or omissions – for example if the Student Loans Company or the University did not have complete information about the relevant factors in your case – please contact us using the link below, for a review of the scoring process. We aim to respond to a request for review within 10 working days of receipt.

The Student Support Fund is also available to students who experience financial difficulties or unexpected financial emergencies whilst attending their course.

Contact us

Contact the Money Advice team using the Student Enquiry Point if you require any further information.

 

£1,000 cash payment and up to £1,000 off accommodation fees for University residences* to students enrolling on University based PGCE programmes** in Lancaster or Carlisle in September 2025 or January 2026 who are alumni of the University of Cumbria.

* This offer also applies to eligible Carlisle based students who chose to live at the Denton Holme student accommodation.

** This does not apply to School Direct / School based provision, SCITT or PGCE with Non-QTS.

 

Terms and conditions: 

Students do not need to apply to receive the scholarship. Eligibility will be checked against the criteria in these terms and conditions by the University and students will be notified of their eligibility by 6 November 2025, if enrolling in September 2025, or 17 February 2026 if enrolling in January 2026. The University will not be able to respond to individual queries about eligibility before these dates.

In order to be eligible, a student must be fully enrolled on a University based PGCE programme** as a full-time student on 16 October 2025, if enrolling in September 2025, or 26 January 2026, if enrolling in January 2026, to qualify for the scholarship.

In order to be eligible, a student must be a graduate with a BSc, BA or LLB issued after 1 January 2019 from the University of Cumbria. Eligibility will be checked through a review of the records of past study held by the University.

The £1,000 cash payments will be made to eligible students on or before 15 November 2025, if enrolling in September 2025, or 21 February 2026 if enrolling in January 2026, via a BACS transfer. Students must have a UK bank account and provide, where not already held by the University, details of this bank account in order to receive payment. Payments can only be made into the bank accounts of eligible students. University colleagues will contact eligible students to obtain bank details if these are not already held. If a student has not received a payment by these dates and believes themselves to be eligible, they should contact the University via accountspayableteam@cumbria.ac.uk.

If a student receives a £1,000 cash payment and withdraws before 5 January 2026, if enrolling in September 2025, or 19 April 2026 if enrolling in January 2026, the University will invoice the student for the full amount that has been paid.

The £1,000 off accommodation fees will be applied as a credit, in equal parts, to the second and third terms’ invoices issued to eligible students who remain within student accommodation for the full year. Where students enter into a short-term accommodation contract, the pro-rata equivalent discount will be applied. If students receive other discounts or waivers which reduce the outstanding accommodation fees below £1,000, the discount will be applied only up to the outstanding fee amount and no cash payment will be made for the balance. Students living at Denton Holme student accommodation in Carlisle will be provided with £1,000 to put towards their student accommodation costs.

The £200 travel contribution to London based students will be provided alongside the main £1,000 payment. 

This does not apply to School Direct / School based provision, SCITT or PGCE with Non-QTS.

For information on how to apply, please click here.

About the Fund

In consultation with the new Student Advisory Panel, the Student Opportunity Fund has been created to support students with low household income to access development opportunities both academic and extra-curricular to support your employability through professional and/or personal development.

You can apply for up to £500 towards an opportunity that will help you gain experience and skills to boost your employability.

Successful students will be required to submit a brief impact report to be uploaded to the website, reflecting on how they benefited from the funds towards their career and employability prospects, to demonstrate impact and encourage future applications. 

This will include providing information such as:

• Why you applied for the fund?
• What you used the Student Opportunity Fund for
• What impact the opportunity has had on your professional and personal development

Eligibility

You are eligible to apply to the Student Opportunity Fund if you are a UK undergraduate student, eligible for the Student Loan, with a household income of under £25,000.

Students are not eligible if they are:

• International students
• Full-time members of staff are not eligible to apply.
• Apprentices
• Registered as students with our collaborative partners
• Distance learners

Prioritisation criteria

Funds are limited, so applications will be prioritised using the following characteristics, in line with the university’s Access and Participation Plan:

• Estranged from parents* 
• Care Leaver* 
• Student with a disclosed disability 
• Black heritage 

*You must be identified as a Care leaver or Estranged from your family by the Student Loans Company.

Students can be in receipt of the Cumbria Bursary and be eligible for this.  

The fund is limited so applications will be encouraged early as once the fund is spent, the opportunity will be removed from communications.

How applications are judged

A panel with representation from the Money Advice and Careers Teams will select successful applicants.

Application deadlines

Application deadlines for 2025/26 are as follows:

• Round one: 5pm Monday 30^th March 2026
• Round two: 5pm Monday 25^th May 2026

Applications submitted after round one deadline will be considered for round two. No applications submitted after round two will be considered for that academic year.

How to apply

Applications will open in January.

Apply to the fund using the online application, which will be shared on this webpage when available.

Appeals process: Students are scored against the prioritisation criteria to determine who receives an award. To maximise the beneficial impact of awards, and to maintain consistency, each student will be scored once only. Students may appeal if they believe the process of scoring for an award may have been adversely affected by errors or omissions in the scoring process. For example, if you have new information that you did not include in your original application. Please contact us by emailing moneyadvice@cumbria.ac.uk within 14 days of the original decision outlining your circumstances.

 

Turing Scheme | MyCumbria

For information on how to apply, please click here.

Our Sanctuary Scholarship scheme supports forced migrants who are not eligible for student finance. For further information on the scheme and how to apply, please click here.

The UoC Student Support Fund is available to students experiencing financial difficulty or unexpected financial emergencies. To find out if you qualify, please download the UoC Student Support Fund guidelines.

Student Support Fund Application Form 2025-2026

Student Support Fund Guidelines 2025 - 2026

Student Support Fund Emergency Loans to Assist with Delayed Funding

If your funding has been delayed and you’re struggling financially as a result, the UoC Student Support Fund is able to make small interest-free loans to assist you. It is expected that you will repay these loans as soon as your funding has been released. You will be required to have exhausted all other reasonable sources of support before applying, and you’ll have to submit evidence of this before your application can be processed.

Once your application is accepted, the Fund will pay fixed sums directly to your bank account. This will be £800 for students with children, and £400 for students without.

To apply for an emergency loan, simply download and return the Student Support Fund Emergency Loan Application form. All the information you need to submit your application is mentioned in the guidelines, but if you do have any trouble, our Money Advisers will be happy to help.

Emergency Loan Application Form 25 - 26

Emergency Loan Guidance 25 - 26

 

For information on how to apply, please click here.

For information on how to apply, please click here.

You may be eligible to obtain other grants and funding by applying for an Educational Trust or Scheme attached to a particular organisation. These are often based on your specific circumstances, and the amount you receive will vary.  The charity Turn2us has a useful search engine on their website. 

Here are a few to get you started:

 

Charis 

Having trouble paying your bills? Then you might qualify for help. 

Some utilities providers have a trust fund attached to assist customers, including students, who are facing financial difficulties. If you’re having trouble with your gas, electricity or water bill and are unable to pay, you may be able to apply for assistance in paying these and other priority bills.

Find out more on the Charis website.

 

Cumbria Community Foundation

Cumbria Community Foundation has a range of grants available to fund activities that are part of a higher education course or lead to a vocational qualification.

Find out more on the Cumbria Community Foundation website.

 

Buttle UK Chances for Children Grant

Chances for Children grants are individually tailored grants of up to £2,000 for children and young people who have experienced a crisis that has recently had a significant and enduring impact on their social and emotional wellbeing and educational engagement.

A support worker must apply on the young person's behalf. Find out more at www.buttleuk.org

 

Leverhulme Trade Charities Trust

The Leverhulme Trade Charities Trust offers financial support for grocers, pharmacists, commercial travellers and their families.  For more information, visit the Leverhulme Trade Charities Trust

If you have any questions about our bursaries, scholarships and other awards, please contact our Money Advice team using the Student Enquiry Point. We're happy to help you.