Guidance for
Alumni-funded scholarship applications

Start your application

Before you start your application, make sure you are eligible for the scholarship. To be eligible, you must be a current undergraduate or postgraduate student studying a York St John University course. You must meet at least 2 of the following criteria:

• Students who have a residual household income under £26,000
• Students who are carers
• Students who have 1 or more dependants under the age of 18
• Students estranged from family and under 25, or are a care leaver
• Students who are a member of a Gypsy, Roma, Traveller, Boater or Showman community
• Students who come from a military family background
• Students whose family circumstances have changed drastically since filling out their loan application. For example, bereavement, chronic illness, or divorce.

After you've submitted the online application form, you also need to submit a written reference. When you have submitted this your application is complete. Submit this by email to scholarships@yorksj.ac.uk before the application deadline.

Any applications that are missing a reference after the deadline will not be considered.

Complete your supporting statement

As part of the online application form, you will need to write a supporting statement.

We advise that you complete your statement in advance, then copy and paste it into the form. This is because you are unable to save your progress when completing the form.

Your statement should be around 500 words. It should explain how you meet the scholarship criteria. Your statement should include:

• Details of your current circumstances relevant to the scholarship criteria. This should include how this impacts your studies (300-350 words).
• How the scholarship funds would benefit you if awarded (150-200 words).

Get a written reference

You should already have an independent referee in place before you start your application. This is because you will need to submit their name and contact details in the online form.

Your referee cannot be a friend, family member or partner. It should be a current or former tutor, employer, community/religious leader, healthcare professional, sports coach or similar.

Your referee should have good knowledge of your personal circumstances. They should be able to explain how this is likely to impact on your studies.

As a rule, you should ask your referee to include the following in their written reference:

• How their relationship with you makes them a suitable independent referee
• Their knowledge and understanding of your circumstances, and the impact this has on your studies
• How they think the scholarship would help you if awarded

It is the responsibility of each applicant to contact their referee to make sure a reference is submitted.

The scholarships team will not contact referees to chase up missing references.

What happens next?

When we have your reference, we will email you to let you know that your application is complete. We will then consider your application after the deadline has passed.

Applications are then anonymised and submitted to the scholarship panel to review. They are first reviewed individually and then together as a group. The panel will then agree their recommendations for awards to be made. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application.

Unsuccessful applicants may also be contacted by the student welfare team. This will happen if your circumstances mean you can access other forms of support.

Successful applicants should expect to get the first instalment of their scholarship funds by the end of February. Any later instalments to be awarded are usually paid directly at the start of each new academic year.