[UK] Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme (OSR/ORSAS) at Newcastle University

The Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme (ORS or ORSAS) grants awards on a competitive basis to international postgraduate research students of outstanding merit and research potential.

The number of scholarships available at Newcastle under this scheme varies, but the University’s success rate in recent years has been very good (in 2004, 24 awards were given to Newcastle students).

Awards are made:

* for full-time research programmes only
* initially for one year but may be extended up to a maximum of three years

What does the scholarship cover?

* the difference between the tuition fee for a home (UK) postgraduate student, and the fee chargeable to an international postgraduate student
* and does not cover living expenses.

Eligibility
You could be eligible for the ORS scholarship if:

• you have been offered a place on any full-time research degree programme, in any field of study (except an Integrated PhD programme)
• you have been assessed as overseas for fees purposes, and are wholly or partially self-financing
• you intend to register to start your studies during the 2007-08 academic year

Existing students in their first year of study are also eligible to apply for one of these awards. Students in the first year of an Integrated PhD programme are eligible to apply for an ORS award. Students entering the third year of their research programme will not generally be eligible to apply for an award.

The only selection criteria are outstanding merit and research potential. Other factors such as finance, nationality, proposed field of study are not taken into account.

You can read profiles of some of our recent ORS Scholarship winners:

• Wenchao Kou from China
• Chris Jenks from the USA
• Freeman Otto Chikomo from Zimbabwe

How to apply
If you are eligible, you will automatically be sent application details from the month of December onwards.

The final closing date for completed application forms is 28 February 2007. However, you are advised to submit your forms as soon as possible for them to be checked and references obtained.

An application form is available on request from the Financial Support Team (international-scholarships@ncl.ac.uk), or you can download a Rich Text File of:

• The ORS Application Form
• The ORS Guidelines for Students
• The ORS Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form

If you need any of these documents in another format, please contact us.

Contact Details
If you have any queries please contact:

Student Welfare Service
(Financial Support Team)
Newcastle University
6 Kensington Terrace
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 191 222 5537/5538
Fax: +44 (0) 191 222 6139
E-mail: international-scholarships@ncl.ac.uk