UCL-AET Undergraduate International Outreach Bursaries, University College London (UCL)

University College London (UCL) and the Africa Educational Trust (AET) have agreed to collaborate in a scheme to enable students from Africa, who are financially unable to study in the UK, to pursue full-time undergraduate studies at UCL. With this scheme UCL supports the aims of AET to help the people of Africa to help themselves.

Under the scheme, two full bursaries are available annually for AET-nominated students who have accepted offers of places at UCL.

Applicants must:

• be a national of any African country (including Madagascar), currently living in an African country, and have one or both parents living in an African country, or are orphaned; AND
• be currently attending school or have recently completed school in an African country; AND
• have before or by January applied to UCAS for admission to a full-time undergraduate degree programme of study at UCL starting the following September, which they intend firmly to accept UCL (as the insurance offer choice does not satisfy the conditions of the bursary); AND
• be liable to pay tuition fees at the rate applicable to Overseas students, as assessed by UCL; AND
• lack the financial means necessary to pursue undergraduate degree studies at UCL.

Scholarships are awarded on financial hardship and academic merit, based on the aims of the scholarship.

Each bursary consists of full tuition fees and a maintenance allowance for the duration of the student’s programme of study, as well as economy air travel to/from the UK at the beginning and end of the bursary-holder’s degree programme. The maintenance allowance will normally rise each year in line with inflation but at the absolute discretion of UCL. (Please note that the bursary is calculated to be sufficient for the applicant only.) In addition, the bursary includes an allowance (on request and up to a specified maximum sum per bursary holder) to permit two members of the bursary-holder’s family to attend their graduation ceremony. Annual renewal of the bursary is subject to good academic progress by the student.

If you fulfill ALL the eligibility requirements above, please email Ms May Omona at m.omona@africaeducationaltrust.org with details of your financial circumstances, your academic history, and proof that you have applied to UCAS for undergraduate admission to UCL. For information about undergraduate admission to UCL, please see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate-study/application-and-entry/ucas/. If you have not applied to UCAS for admission to study at UCL and cannot provide a valid UCAS application number, you need not apply for a bursary; your application is incomplete without a valid UCAS application number.

AET will provide eligible applicants with an electronic application form, which must be completed and submitted electronically to Ms May Omona at m.omona@africaeducationaltrust.org by 15 March. Late applications cannot be considered for funding.

AET will select 10 applicants from eligible applications received – with attention to the financial circumstances of the applicants. The 10 short-listed applicants will be contacted by AET in April (by email), and asked to write and submit a 500-word essay on a topic set each year by UCL. Shortlisted applicants will also be required to submit documentation as proof of the information provided in the application form.

Essays and supporting documentation to complete the application must reach AET by 15 April. Candidates who fail to provide essay and/or documentation are excluded from the competition.

NOTE: Essays must not exceed the permitted word count, and must be in the candidate’s own words, and will be checked for plagiarism. All students should be aware that UCL now uses a sophisticated detection system (Turnitin) to scan work for evidence of plagiarism. This system has access to billions of sources world-wide (websites, journals, etc) as well as work previously submitted to UCL and other universities.  We would advise all students to consult our website on plagiarism: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/current-students/guidelines/policies/plagiarism.

If an essay is found to exceed the permitted number of words, or if UCL finds evidence of plagiarism, the entire application will be deemed ineligible and will not be considered for a bursary.

AET will send to UCL complete applications including essays and supporting documentation by 30 April. UCL will select the academically most promising candidates, and also identify a number of reserve candidates. Conditional scholarship offers (and reserve notifications) will be issued in June/July, pending selected candidates’ full admission to UCL, and upon candidates’ firm acceptance of their admissions offers. Final confirmation of funding is made once the candidates have met the conditions of and firmly accepted their admissions offers. 

Successful applicants and reserve candidates can expect to be contacted by UCL in June/July.

Page last modified on 07 dec 12 15:28