Today we shall be discussing How to Apply for an Undergraduate Scholarship in the UK.


What is a Scholarship?
It is defined as “a grant or payment made to support a student's education, awarded on the basis of academic or other achievement” (Oxford Dictionary).

What does it mean to be an International Student?
An International students is anyone who leaves his or her home country and travel to another country under the status of a “non-immigrant" visitors to temporarily undertake studies in any field of their choice on campus or they could also do so virtually from any part of the world.
There are four types of scholarships
1. University Specific scholarships
This is a common scholarship, mostly available only to the university you want to study at. These scholarships can be applied for after you have received an offer from that university.
If you have a good academic student, you are able to get to secure generous funding from top universities like;
King’s College London
Imperial College London
University College London (UCL)
University of Cambridge
University of Oxford
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

2. Course specific scholarships
This is another common scholarship, available only to applicants who want to study a particular course. For example, some of the best scholarships for women engineers are;
•The National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) Scholarship

•The BHW Group’s annual Women in STEM Scholarship

•The Virtix IT STEM Studies scholarship

•Scholarships provided by The Society of Women Engineers
•
3. Country Specific Scholarships
These are scholarships available only to nationals of a specific country, and not tied down to any particular program, university or course.
For example, Cameroon specific scholarships are
•Cameroon Erasmus Mundus Scholarships
•Scholarships for Cameroon Muslims
•UNDP-TEF Youth Entrepreneurship Grants in Sahel Africa
4. Global Scholarships.
These are scholarships that are not tied to any country, university or course. They are available for applicants around the world, who are seeking financial support for their education abroad.
-The Chevening scholarship
-The Common wealth scholarship


Studying the UK
Many people aspire to study most famous UK Universities like Oxford and Cambridge, but have little or no financial capacity to do so. It is true that the UK provides some of the best higher education in the world; however it does not come cheap. Therefore, for students from low income back grounds, scholarships can be the best route to these excellent opportunities.
The United Kingdom government is known for its generous scholarships, bursaries and financial support to students from developing countries. To know if your country is a beneficiary to these scholarships, you should visit The UK’s council for development affairs …..
It is important to note that 90% of the programmes require English test score, particular for non English speaking countries.

Anglophone Cameroonian and students from other angloxanson countries can get exoneration from proof of English proficiency if they have a good grade in Ordinary Levels GCE English Language.

If you want to study and book for the IELTS test, you should check the British council website in your country. For Cameroonians it cost about XAF162000.




Steps to apply for undergraduate scholarship;
You must pass through the UCAs system to apply for undergraduate universities in the UK.
What is the UCAS?
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service is a UK-based organisation whose main role is to operate the application process for British universities. It operates as an independent charity, funded by fees charged to applicants and to universities, plus advertising income.
For upper sixth students who are yet to write their GCE exams, now is the best time to apply for your university choices via the UCAS system.
For those of you who have had your GCE, you can consider this year as a gap year, and make your applications via UCAS for the next academic year.

So let me tell you how it works;
1-Research the university you want to go to and check what their scholarships are

2-You have to chose a maximum number of 5 universities


3-After choosing your universities, you must pay a processing fee of £20 around XAF 15000 for Cameroonian students.

4-Once the payment is made, you will be given login details and you will have a UCAS account through which you can make your application and chose the universities you already researched on


5-Once you submit the applications for all 5 universities, they will come back to you with an offer or a decline.

6-Once you received a response from all the universities, you have a limited amount of time to choose the 2 best from your list. And amongst the two, you will have to make one your firm choice and the other, your second choice.

Lastly
7-Once that is done, if you meet the admission criteria from the firm choice, all the other choices are automatically cancelled and you now have to start travel procedures. This will be discussed in the next episode…
Final Thoughts
Despite the tight competition, the UK offers one of the best financial aids for needy students. However, it is important to perform an effective research on the funding options for your dream university, reach out to the local foreign embassies, large organisations and even the local government education bodies.
The UK will be a fantastic study destination for you.
I haven’t done the research yet, but I shall find out if students on scholarship are able to apply for work for at least 2 years after their graduation. Or if you are able to engage in 20 hours of part time work as a student.

I hope this information was useful.
Please DO NOT keep it to yourself.
Some of you have information that can bless your friend or neighbour, but you never share. You are simply suffering from a scarcity mentality and we have an blog article that can heal you from that disease.. Check it out on our website.

I gave it to you for free and you should share with everyone you can and bless somebody too.

In our next episode, we shall discuss the steps of preparing for a UK visa Interview

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2. Euraxess UK
This is a scholarship managed by the British council to support both international researchers who want to move to the UK and national researchers who want to leave the UK and go abroad. This scholarship covers the Post graduate level, postdoctoral level and over 6 years post doctorate level.