Oxford: Securing a Scholarship for MSc Students

Studying at Oxford is expensive, but there are many scholarships available for MSc students. With careful planning, there is a good chance you can secure at least some funding for your degree. In fact, after debating whether to apply to Cambridge or Oxford, this was a primary reason I ultimately only applied for the latter: Cambridge appeared to offer significantly fewer scholarships for MSc students.

Uni Scholarships vs College Scholarships

If you’ve read my previous post about Oxford , you already understand that there is a surprising degree of separation between Oxford University and its individual colleges. Due to this distinction, you should apply for both university-sponsored scholarships and college-sponsored scholarship. This is something that I, along with many of my foreign colleagues, did not fully comprehend before arriving at Oxford.

For a list of university scholarships, see this portal. Although the university search engine is supposed to list all the college-specific scholarships as well, I have found that this is not always true. For instance, this page listing the numerous scholarships specific to New College offers options that do not appear in the university search engine results as of 2018. (Fun fact: “New College” got its name because it was new when it was founded in 1386!)

My general recommendation is to first explore all the scholarship options listed in the university link above. After that, start researching the scholarship options of each of the colleges (beginning with the wealthiest ones), by Googling them individually.

WHT Scholarship

While at Oxford, I had the immense privilege of being fully funded by the Weidenfeld-Hoffman Trust (WHT) Scholarship. This scholarship is designed for one-year MSc students from across the globe, supporting approximately 30 students annually.

The WHT scholarship staff were incredibly kind, generous, and supportive, and they made my year at Oxford so much more memorable. One of the highlights was a multi-day pre-year seminar on leadership and ethics Throughout the year, WHT staff organized additional leadership sessions and fun activities for us, such as going on a tour of Parliament and ice-skating in London over Christmas.

What I believe distinguishes this scholarship from others like the Rhodes Scholarship, is its intimacy and multiculturalism. With a limit of 3 scholars from any single country each year, it prevents the formation of country-specific cliques and ensures a diverse range of perspectives.

The trust was established by George Weidenfeld (1919-2016), who led an inspiring life despite his difficult youth. Lord Weidenfeld fled Austria in 1938 and relocated to the UK, where he rebuilt his life from the ground up. The trust also receives support from Michael Lewis and André Hoffmann.