Experience Sheffield Scholarships
We are offering over 250 Experience Sheffield Scholarships worth £3,600 each for home fee-paying students starting their studies in September 2025. If you're eligible, you'll be invited to apply once you receive an offer from us.
Eligibility
You must meet all of the criteria below to be eligible to apply:
- You have a household income of £50,000 or less. This must be assessed by Student Finance England or an equivalent UK funding agency.
- You have received an academic offer to study a full-time undergraduate course at the University of Sheffield starting in September 2025.
- You are eligible to pay the home rate of fees.
Apply
To access the application form you will need to hold an offer for an undergraduate course starting at the University in September 2025. It may take up to 24 hours to be able to access the form after you have received your offer.
Applications will open soon.
The deadline to submit an application is 1pm on Monday 12 May 2025.
All eligible applicants who apply before the deadline will be contacted before the end of June 2025.
Selection process
A selection panel consisting of academic and professional services staff will consider your scholarship application. When making their decision, the panel member will take into consideration the widening participation criteria you meet and also give regard to your answers within the application form.
We will take into account the following widening participation criteria:
- Have you entered the University through one of our outreach schemes?
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To be eligible for this criteria you must have attended one of the following outreach schemes:
- Access to Sheffield Summer School
- Sutton Trust Summer School
- Realising Opportunities
- Access to Sheffield (Medicine)
- Access to Sheffield (Dentistry)
- Access to Sheffield (Law)
- Access to Sheffield (Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences)
- Access to Sheffield (STEM) - Were you in receipt of free school meals during secondary studies?
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You were entitled to free school meals at some point during the six years prior to your final KS4 year (the year you were aged 15-16). We will use data from the Department for Education National Pupil Database to check this.
- Are you from a Black, Asian and other minority ethnic group?
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We will use the information submitted as part of your course application to assess this.
- Do you have a disability?
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You are required to provide evidence to support this. For example, a copy of your DSA notification letter that outlines your condition(s) or other relevant medical evidence, such as a letter from your GP or other health professional. Please note, we cannot accept medication/prescriptions as evidence.
- Do you come from an area where it is not usual for people to go to university? This is defined by the government's classification called POLAR.
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To meet this criteria your address must fall into quintile 1 or 2 of POLAR4. Please note this information only covers the UK.
- Do you come from one of the more deprived areas of the country as defined by the government's Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) database?
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If your postcode IMD value is 16,250 or less, you meet this criteria. Please note this criteria only applies to students who live in England.
- Will you be over the age of 25 on the first day of your course?
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You do not need to provide any additional information to be considered for this criteria. We will use 1 September 2025 as the first day of all courses regardless of your actual start date.
- Have you been in care as a looked-after child for at least 13 weeks since the age of 14?
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You will need to provide evidence confirming your care leaver status. Your evidence will need to include the dates you were in care. For example, a letter from your local authority, a letter from social services or proof of legal guardianship, such as a court order.
- Are you estranged from your parents and will be aged under 25 on the first day of your course?
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Being estranged means you have no relationship with, or support from, your parents. To be considered an estranged student, this situation must be permanent, and you must have little or no contact with your parents with this being unlikely to change. Further information about eligibility can be found on our 'Financial support for estranged students' webpage.
We will use 1 September 2025 as the first day of all courses regardless of your actual start date.
- Are you a carer for an ill or disabled family member?
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You are a student carer if you are responsible for providing unpaid care to a relative who has, for example, a long-term illness, physical or learning disability, mental health condition or an addiction.
Further information about eligibility can be found on our 'Financial support for students with caring responsibilities' webpage. Please note that temporary care needs are not considered as part of this scheme.
If your application is successful, you will be required to provide a copy of your Student Finance Entitlement letter from student finance showing that you have had a means tested assessment and meet the relevant loan eligibility.
If you have a condition that can affect aspects of your written communication and would like panel members to be aware of this, you can let us know by emailing alumni.scholarships@sheffield.ac.uk
How the scholarships are funded
The money for these scholarships is provided by donations from generous people, organisations and companies that want to support students. Many of the donors are alumni (former students) of the University of Sheffield.
If you receive an Experience Sheffield Scholarship, you may be invited to relevant events during your studies at Sheffield.
Frequently asked questions
- What if I don't want to apply for a maintenance loan?
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To be eligible to receive a scholarship we will need Student Finance to confirm your household income to us. If you do not wish to take out a loan, you can still apply for a household income assessment to be carried out by Student Finance England (or equivalent regional funding body) and request a £0 loan - this allows us to assess your eligibility for either scheme without you receiving any loan. You will have the opportunity, during the application process for student finance, to indicate that you wish to apply for a £0 tuition fees loan and a £0 maintenance loan instead of the maximum loans available to you.
- How can I access my Student Finance Entitlement Letter?
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Once you have had your means tested assessment completed you can view your Student Finance Entitlement Letter by logging into your Student Finance account and accessing the 'Letters and emails' section.
- I'm not sure what my household income is, can I apply?
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Yes, you are welcome to apply. However, if you are awarded the scholarship, this will be conditional on you confirming your household income and providing evidence where necessary.
- Can international students apply?
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No, you need to be eligible to pay the home rate fees for your course to apply.
- How will you check my household income?
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If you have applied for a means-tested assessment by Student Finance England or equivalent UK funding agency and give consent to share your information with us, we will be able to automatically confirm your household income.
Further information
- If you are awarded a scholarship and then reject your course offer you are not eligible to receive the award or to be considered for the scheme again if you then apply for the same course through clearing.
- Scholarships will be paid directly into your bank account in two instalments of £600 per level of study, for up to three years.
- As a scholarship recipient, you will be closely involved with our fundraising work and you can help provide our donors with a greater understanding of what it is like to be a Sheffield student. At the end of each academic year, you will be asked to provide a short report outlining the past year and how the scholarship has helped you. You will not receive any further instalments until this has been completed.
- Successful recipients will be invited to attend an annual 'thank you' event at which you can meet donors and other scholarship recipients.
- We will not share any personal details about you with donors without your prior consent.
- If you withdraw from the University, part or all of the scholarship may be repayable.
- If you take a period of leave of absence, your scholarship may be suspended.
- Full terms and conditions will be shared with scholarship recipients once registered at the University.
