The Cowrie Foundation Scholarships for Black British students

The University of Manchester has partnered with The Cowrie Scholarship Foundation to offer scholarships to support Black African and Caribbean heritage applicants from socio-economically under-represented backgrounds.

The Cowrie Scholarship Foundation will fund 100 Black British students through UK universities in the next decade.

Applicants must be ordinarily resident in the UK and holding an offer of study at The University of Manchester.

Award 

The scholarship will cover your home UK tuition fees and a maintenance stipend of up to £8,000 for each year of your course. The scholarship is tenable for the duration of your programme of study, subject to satisfactory progression.

Eligibility and Criteria  

You must meet all of the following criteria to be considered for this scholarship: 

1. Identify as belong to one of the following ethnic groups:

  • Black or Black British – Caribbean
  • Black or Black British – African
  • Mixed - White and Black Caribbean
  • Mixed - White and Black African
  • Other Black background 

2. Have firmly accepted an offer of a place by the relevant UCAS deadline on a first undergraduate full time degree programme at The University of Manchester commencing study in the relevant academic year. 

3. Have been assessed for fee status as a 'home' student.  

4. Have a household income of £25,000 per annum or less.  

5. Made an application to your regional student funding authority for income assessed UK government financial support for higher education students. The regional student funding authorities are: Student Finance England, Student Finance Wales, Student Finance Northern Ireland and the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. Please ensure you have given consent to share the information with the University, as this information will be used to determine eligibility.  

As part of the application process, we will look at where you live and other measures of educational challenges, often referred to as socio-economic metrics.  Discover further information on widening access and contextual data at the University.

Awards may be withdrawn if we later become aware successful scholars have not met eligibility criteria or have provided false information. 

Application  

The application process for 2023 Cowrie Foundation Scholarships has now closed. Information about the scholarships for 2024 entry will be provided here from January 2024.

Information for 2023 applicants

You will be contacted by Thursday, 11 May if you have been shortlisted for an interview. Informal interviews will be held towards the end of May and further information will be provided by email if you have been shortlisted.  All interviewees will be contacted about whether they have been successful in obtaining a conditional offer of a scholarship before Thursday, 8 June (the date where you need to select your firm choice of university through UCAS). Please do not contact the Cowrie Scholarship Foundation as all awards and notifications will come from the partner university.  

If you are successful in being made an offer of a Cowrie Foundation Scholarship, this offer will be conditional, subject to you meeting the grade requirements of your University of Manchester offer and meeting the student finance requirements. 

Contact

If you have any questions, please contact cowrie@manchester.ac.uk