Many students successfully fund their studies by combining different sources including scholarships, student loans, part-time work, and savings.
Below, we discuss some ways to navigate the funding landscape, how to prioritise your efforts, and some key resources and links you can explore for further support.
Planning your approach to finding funding
The approach below looks at finding funding in different steps. This helps you to prioritise sources based on their relevance, value, and your likelihood of a successful application, allowing for a focused and efficient use of your time.
Step one: Institutional funding
These are awards administered directly by an institution or university (for example, LSE). They represent your most immediate and relevant opportunities, as the application processes are usually integrated with the university's admissions system and are specifically designed for students applying to that institution.
For example, at LSE you may consider the Graduate Support Scheme (GSS). This single financial application puts you in consideration for other LSE Master's Awards.
The UK institution model often centralises funding applications, sometimes making them accessible after you receive an offer for your course.
This can differ from other systems.
In the US, for example, funding like teaching or research assistantships is often handled directly by academic departments and may require a separate, earlier application.
In the EU, funding is frequently tied to specific programmes like the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters, where the scholarship and course application are one and the same.
Always check the specific process for each institution you apply to as per their own guidance or FAQs. If in doubt, get in touch with their support teams!
Step two: Major external scholarships
This step comprises higher value, prestigious scholarships offered by governments and major foundations.
These awards can be transformative, often covering the full cost of study. However, they are competitive and require tailored applications that often go beyond academic merit to include criteria such as leadership potential and future impact. They may also sometimes have nationality requirements.
Examples include Chevening Scholarships (for 160+ countries), Commonwealth Scholarships (for Commonwealth citizens), and the Fulbright Awards (for US citizens moving overseas, or students from other countries going to the US to study).
Step three: Supplementary and specialist grants
You may also look toward a broad array of smaller grants from academic societies, charitable trusts, and foundations.
While the value of individual awards may be modest, they can be aggregated to form a larger amount of total funding. This approach diversifies your application effort and mitigates the risk of relying solely on securing a single, large scholarship. It can be time-consuming, so it will help you to plan ahead, be strategic, and be well-prepared.
Resources like The Scholarship Hub and FindAMasters are excellent for finding these opportunities effectively.
Key sources of master's funding
Below are some of the primary avenues for master's funding. Remember to check eligibility criteria and deadlines carefully for each one.
LSE financial support
If you’re applying to LSE, the most important first step is to apply for your course early. Once you have an offer of admission, you can access the Graduate Financial Support Application, which considers you for the needs-based Graduate Support Scheme (GSS) and merit-based LSE Master's Awards. The deadline is typically in early May each year. This will be similar for other institution-specific support on offer. See this page on LSE scholarships, studentships, loans and tuition fees (includes 20 internal department funds and external postgraduate loan sources).
UK Government Postgraduate Master's Loan
Eligible UK students can apply for a government loan to help with course fees and living costs. You can find out more about eligibility and how to apply on the official government website.
Major international schemes
Beyond those mentioned in step two above, many countries offer their own scholarships for study abroad.
For US students
The Fulbright Awards are the premier scholarship for US citizens studying in the UK. You may also be able to use US federal loans for study at LSE; see LSE's US Federal Loans page for more information.
For EU students
The Erasmus+ Master Loan scheme can provide financing for study in a different country.
For all nationalities
Research your home country's Ministry of Education or equivalent body for national scholarship schemes (eg, DAAD for German students, JASSO for Japanese students). British Council’s GREAT Scholarships scheme supports tuition fees for one-year master’s courses in the UK for citizens of 18 countries.
Charitable trusts and foundations
There are thousands of charities that provide grants for education. Eligibility can be very specific, so read the criteria carefully. Examples include:
Funding databases
These allow you to search wider sources for available funding. Whilst extensive, they are not exhaustive. Databases include:
Using AI to search for funding
Generative AI (GenAI) can be used to identify potential sources of funding for your postgraduate degree, but it must be used carefully.
Below is an example prompt you could adapt to start an AI search for sources, in addition to using the resources above. However, make sure you use critical judgement to consider the results it produces to confirm your eligibility, as well as the relevance and availability of the funding option in your own context. Underneath the sample prompt is further information about how to use any information you gather in this way.
Sample GenAI Prompt:
"I am a prospective student looking for funding for a postgraduate course in the UK. I would like you to act as a researcher and scan databases online to create a list of a range of possible funding sources and charities that I may be eligible for – a minimum of 25 for me to explore. Below are some facts about me, my course and more details that you should take into account that may affect my eligibility:
About me: I am 21 years old, male, an Australian citizen who would be an international student in the UK, with a place on the full-time MSc Economic History at LSE, which I am looking to raise funding towards the overall cost.
About the degree: MSc Economic History (full time) at LSE. The course description is here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/graduate/msc-economic-history. It is a postgraduate taught course and will be taught at the LSE on campus in London.
About grants: I would be open to all types of grant – unrestricted, fees and maintenance, research/travel/conference, study costs, or contributions towards writing up / researching a final thesis or dissertation. Please generate me names of the funding bodies and charities/organisations, a 100-200 word summary of the organisation and the grants or funding potentially available, plus their web address or contact details so I can explore further. Include specifically the range of the value of the funding or grants if specified, when they are available, any key eligibility criteria also. Do this for all 25+ sources. Also, do not include any sources that require a paid licence or membership to access."
Using AI generated information
Always verify the information provided by AI with the official funding body's website, as details can change. Whether prompting GenAI or using agents, specific dates and figures can be misrepresented or hallucinated by the platform, so you must only use AI as part of the process, and not just accept your final output at face value – use critical judgement to check and evaluate the information the AI tool has given you.
When approaching use of GenAI in your career planning, you can use LSE Careers’ ACRES model for AI prompt design to support you:
- Assess your needs, then Clarify and contextualise: The prompt is highly specific. It doesn't just ask for "funding"; it details the user's nationality, age, course, and the type of grants they're interested in. However, it is mindful of security and doesn’t provide a level of detail that would be identifiable at an individual level or confidential. Providing context is crucial for getting relevant, targeted results.
- Engage, Refine, Synthesise: While the prompt itself is the first step, its detailed nature is designed to produce a high-quality initial output. This allows you to effectively engage with the results, refine them with follow-up questions, and synthesise the information into your own research notes.
By using AI in this structured way, you are empowering yourself to conduct effective research while taking accountability for the final output. This approach also encourages you to check the reliability of the AI's output by cross-referencing with the official funding links provided.