Sponsorship and trusts

Many large companies, professional associations and public sector bodies have schemes to support students on relevant courses and/or at particular institutions. These sponsorship programmes usually include work experience, training and financial support.

Why should they do this?

Types of sponsorship

Employers can offer different forms of sponsorship. They may:

offer sponsorship for sandwich courses, where you would either spend a year with that organisation, or spend periods of time gaining practical experience with your sponsoring employer throughout your course
treat their students as employees and pay them a full salary during their course
offer a bursary on each year of the course
give a bursary during term time and pay a salary during any vacation periods that you spend working for them
only sponsor final year or local students

Can anyone get a sponsorship?

There are some schemes that are open to students in any subject but these are relatively few. Engineering courses attract the largest number of sponsorships; followed by business studies, finance and computer sciences.

How do you find a sponsor?

Most sponsors are listed in the book 'Sponsorships for Students' published by Hobson’s, which is available for reference in schools, colleges and public libraries.

Sponsoring organisations may advertise in local press or they may prefer to recruit through the Higher Education institutions.

When should you apply?

If you want a sponsorship for the duration of the course, you should apply at the same time as you send in your application for the course. Many employers only sponsor specific courses/institutions and will send you a list of these.

Other sources of sponsorship

Some institutions have bursaries (academic scholarships) or trust monies which can be used to support students on any course at that institution provided they contribute to university or college life in some way – for example music, sports, debating.

There are also more general educational trust and charitable organisations who can provide financial support to students who meet their eligibility conditions. You may find it useful to check:

The Directory of Grant Making Trusts published by the Charities Aid Foundation.
SAAS maintain a Register of Educational Endowments. Check out details on the Student Awards Agency for Scotland website website.
Educational Grants Advisory Service (EGAS) offers guidance and advice on funding for those studying in post 16 education in the UK. Visit the Educational Grants Advisory Service website for more information.
The Scholarship Search website includes a database of undergraduate and postgraduate scholarship awards offered by academic institutions, commercial organisations and charitable trusts.