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 commencing undergraduate study in September 2023.   

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. There are two scholarships available for students studying any degree programme and four scholarships available for students studying a degree programme within the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

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 2023/2024 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.  

Application  

Please check your eligibility before making an application. Awards may be withdrawn if we later become aware successful scholars have not met eligibility criteria or have provided false information. 

You can apply for the scholarship by completing this form. Please read the information below before starting.

As part of the application process, we'd like you to submit a personal statement of no more than 700 words explaining:

1) Why the scholarship would be beneficial to your studies.

2) How it would help you to achieve your academic goals. 

3) How your education would be of future benefit to your community and/or society. 

4) What achievements, academically and personally, are you most proud of? This could include overcoming a challenging personal circumstance. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions; we are keen to hear your personal story. Please prepare this offline and upload the statement using the 'Choose File' button in question 15.

The deadline for applications is Friday 21 April at 5pm and all applicants will receive notification about whether they have been invited to an interview in mid-May. 

Interviews will be held towards the end of May and all interviewees will be contacted about whether they have been successful in obtaining a conditional offer of a scholarship ahead of 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.