Cambridge Opportunity Studentships

Essential Criteria:

Applicants must not already be qualified at Masters level or higher, nor currently undertaking postgraduate study.

You must also be able to agree with the following statement, and to provide evidence on request: I do not have the existing financial means (in the form of savings, assets, other awards, or an income independent of hours worked) to finance the proposed course of study

Additional Criteria:

In addition to the essential criteria above, one or more of the following should apply to you. If there are other challenging life circumstances you feel should be taken into account, for example, educational disruption due to moving school or illness, doing paid work during full-time undergraduate study, circumstances that limited your choice of undergraduate university, an unusual route to postgraduate study, or anything else, then you may be eligible; please detail this in the relevant section on the questionnaire.

• You have Refugee status or humanitarian protection in the UK.

At secondary school:

• You were in receipt of Free Schools Meals
• You spent time in local authority care or as a Foyer resident
• You were a young carer with caring responsibilities for a family member who could not cope without your practical support
• You lived in one of the most deprived areas of the country. (This is defined according to the government's IMD database. You can check your postcode ranking using the government website for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.)

At university:

• If you started your undergraduate course prior to August 2016: You were/are in receipt of a full or partial Maintenance Grant from the UK Government as an undergraduate
• If you started your undergraduate course after August 2016: you were eligible for a means-tested maintenance loan from the UK Student Loans Company and your residual household income was assessed as £42,620 or less
• You are/were in the first generation of your immediate family to do an undergraduate or Masters course
• You are/were estranged from your immediate family or care-givers
• You are/were a full-time undergraduate with caring responsibilities for a family member who could not cope without your practical support
• You are/were a full-time undergraduate who is/was a single parent, lone foster parent, or lone guardian of a young person who was still in full-time education
• You are/were disrupted in your undergraduate education due to health difficulties or bereavement of an immediate family member