Eligibility
The eligibility requirements for most postgraduate Cambridge Trust scholarships are:
- significant academic achievement and potential
- financial need.
Some of our scholarships are awarded based on academic merit alone while others have additional selection criteria. For details of these, please visit Find a scholarship and read the information in the relevant scholarship listings.
Degree level
Applicants must be intending to start a course at the level of:
- Masters (such as MPhil, MASt, LLM but with some restrictions – see table below.
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).
We do not offer funding for premium level courses such as the MBA and MFin.
| Levels funded by the Trust | Levels not funded by the Trust |
| Master of Law (LLM) | Advanced Diploma (AdvDip) |
| Master of Advanced Study (MAst) | Doctor of Business (BusD) |
| Master of Corporate Law (MCL) | Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) |
| Master of Philosophy (MPhil) | Global Executive Master of Business Admin (Global EMBA) |
| Master of Philosophy + Doctor of Philosophy (MPhil+PhD) | Master of Accounting (MAcc) |
| Master of Research (MRes) | Master of Business Administration (MBA) |
| Master of Research + Doctor of Philosophy (MRes+PhD) | Master of Conservation of Easel Paintings (MCEP) |
| Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) | Master of Surgery (MCHIR) |
| Doctor of Medicine (MD) | |
| Master of Education (MEd) | |
| Master of Finance (MFin) | |
| Master of Letters (MLitt) | |
| Master of Studies (MSt) | |
| Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (MV) | |
| Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert) | |
| Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) |
Subject
Applicants may study any subject available at the University of Cambridge, apart from the exceptions specified above. Please visit the postgraduate course directory for further information.
Nationality
The Trust supports a range of scholarship programmes for Home and Overseas fee-paying applicants. To find out more about your fee status, please see information on the University’s page on fee status for postgraduates.
Some of our scholarships, which are funded with our partners, are allocated to students of particular nationalities or with other specific eligibility criteria. This will be clear in the scholarship listings.
Equality
The Trust is committed to equality of opportunity, and no applicant will be treated less favourably than another on the grounds of sex (including gender reassignment), marital or parental status, race, ethnic or national origin, disability, sexual orientation, religion or age. The selection of scholars is based on the strength of the applicant’s fit with the selection criteria for each scholarship programme.
Other important information
- The Trust will not support students at a degree level that is the same as, or lower than, a degree they already hold, with one exception; applicants who are undertaking a second MPhil as a department requirement before they can be considered suitable for a PhD. In these cases, students can be considered for Trust funding.
- The Trust does not accept applications from students who are part-way through a course at Cambridge, unless they are applying for funding towards a higher degree course following graduation.
- Most students register for full-time study, but, in the interests of widening participation, the Trust considers applications from students for part-time study where such courses are offered by the University.
How to apply
If you would like to apply for postgraduate funding from the Cambridge Trust to support a course of study at the University of Cambridge, please follow the steps below.
Important! We can only consider you for funding if you submit your admissions application by the relevant funding deadline, indicate that you wish to be considered for funding, and have a conditional offer of admission.
Step 1: Find your course
Applicants may study any subject currently available at the University of Cambridge. Before making the application, thoroughly research your chosen course of study (via the University postgraduate website).
Step 2: Find your scholarship(s)
Visit Find a scholarship for a list of the Cambridge Trust scholarships for which you are eligible.
Please read the information in each scholarship listing carefully as some have additional eligibility criteria. For some scholarships, which are funded with partners, applicants may be required to submit a separate application to the partner.
Funding is highly competitive. We advise students with financial need to research and apply for all suitable scholarships.
Step 3: Find your College
If you are applying for postgraduate study, you may state a choice of two Colleges on your application form, or you may leave that section blank and be considered by any College. The Trust plays no part in the selection of Colleges for applicants, or assigning accommodation. Further information is available for postgraduate applicants.
Some of our scholarships are available to applicants for particular Colleges. Details will be provided in the relevant scholarship listings.
Step 4: Submit your application for admission to the University
Completing the application form
If you would like to be considered for a scholarship from the Trust, you must complete the funding section of the online admissions application form via the University’s Applicant portal, expressing your wish to be considered for funding.
For some scholarships, which are funded with partners of the Cambridge Trust, applicants may be required to submit a separate funding application to the partner. This is made clear in the scholarship listings in Find a scholarship.
In the funding section of the University admissions application form, you should provide details of significant income from all sources, including salaries, business profit, rents and dividends, as many of our scholarships require evidence of financial need.
Meeting the deadline
Your admissions application must be submitted by the funding deadline specific to your course. The funding deadline is not the same as the application deadline.
If you do not know what the funding deadline is for your course, you can visit the postgraduate course directory and check your subject (the funding deadline is a drop-down section on the right-hand side of the individual course page).
Full details can be found on the University’s page Applying for postgraduate courses at Cambridge.
Step 5: The awards process
The Trust’s awarding period runs from the middle of February to the end of July and is an ongoing process throughout that period. Most of our awards are made early during the months of February and March, but some of our partner funded awards involve additional processes such as interviews, which means funding decisions tend to be later from April to June.
Although we cannot provide funding updates for individual applicants, the Trust will confirm on our website once we have finished issuing offers for our main scholarship programmes.
Throughout the awarding period the Trust will be reallocating awards that have not been taken up. Therefore, all applicants will remain under consideration for any reallocated award for which they are eligible until the end of July.
If you have not been contacted by the Trust by the end of July, you should assume that your funding application has not been successful. Please note that due to the number of applications the Trust receives, it is not possible to notify unsuccessful applicants, or to provide individual feedback.
Further help
In the University’s application portal, there are additional help pages which applicants can link to directly once the application is started. These links will take you straight there:
If you have any questions regarding the process of applying for admission, please contact the University’s Postgraduate Admissions Office. If you have a question about the process of applying for funding from the Cambridge Trust, please read the section below, or contact us.