Whether you choose a taught postgraduate course or a research opportunity, you’ll need to think about how to finance your studies. There are some grants available but you may need to fund your studies yourself.

Financing yourself

The tuition fees for postgraduate study vary from institution to institution and course to course, but usually run to several thousand pounds. Postgraduate prospectuses give up-to-date fees. You also need to consider accommodation and living costs.

Some students work for a year between a first degree and postgraduate course, to help finance their studies. Another option is to study part time while working in a full-time job, although you need to make sure you can juggle the working week with your coursework.

If your proposed course is related to your job, you could ask your employer to sponsor you. If they are unable to help you with course fees, you could ask about time off to study for exams or write assignments. Some employers offer work-based learning schemes as a flexible option to help you progress in your career.

Research Council Funding - The research councils will mainly fund research degree programmes and also taught postgraduate degree programmes (mainly to allow postgraduates to progress to a research degree). There are different research councils for different discipline areas with the following names and weblinks:

There are different research councils for different discipline areas with the following names and weblinks:

Medical Research Council (MRC) - http://www.mrc.ac.uk - This is for all research in medical funding with the most generous funding stipends for research students. Studentships are awarded to departments for both Master level and Doctoral level postgraduates.

Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) - http://www.nerc.ac.uk - One of the smaller research councils with a limited number of studentships available distributed via departments, which would normally be for postgraduate research.

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) - http://www.esrc.ac.uk - This research council covers all the social sciences where competition is tough, and the ESRC have recently introduced a quota of awards to departments with high quality research to try and ease selection processes. This research council will fund Master level courses only for those wishing to carry on to Doctoral level via a "1 + 3" scheme. It is also possible to apply for a "+3" scheme only for students already qualified to begin a research degree.

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) - http://www.epsrc.ac.uk - As a large research council with a wide scope for research, there are many awards available here for both Master level and Doctoral level programmes . All these awards are provided via departments. The EPSRC offers different ways of funding doctoral programmes including doctoral training accounts, co-operative awards in science and engineering (CASE) schemes and engineering doctorates. Such awards can warrant generous donations of funding with the inclusion of industrial sponsorship.

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council - http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk - As a similar sized research council to EPSRC it offers similar support to Master and Doctoral level students other than the doctoral training accounts. All funding is available via departments in biological sciences, biomedical, biochemistry and other related fields.

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) - http://www.ahrc.ac.uk - This is not yet a research council although it does have limited awards to fund or part fund postgraduate taught and research degrees. Competition is high although as AHRB is soon to become a research council and encourage more collaborative research with other research councils, it is hoped this will open avenues for better funding in the arts and humanities.

Charity Funding - The main charity to fund postgraduate research is the Wellcome Trust - . A limited number of research studentships are available where medical research is supported by charity.

For more information on any aspect of postgraduate education contact National Postgraduate Committee (NPC) www.npc.org.uk