Funding for Masters?

[JavelinArse]

I'm thinking about applying to do a social science Masters starting this September but I do not have a penny to pay towards tuition fees, I am a single parent with two young children.

I have thought about applying for funding but have talked myself out of it because I'm not a particularly outstanding student (although I do have a 2:1 from a Russell group university) and funding must surely be very competitive?

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Would a career development loan be the answer perhaps?

I don't have any friends or family that have gone to university to do a first degree, let alone a Masters so haven't got the first clue about post graduate study and there's no one irl to ask

Anyone? hopeful

Are you interested in research methods (it's a PGDip but pre-Doc if that's of interest)? Starts April though: www.ioe.ac.uk/study/RPD9_SSRM99.html

Also a single parent - though only one young child in my case.

I was very lucky to win full funding from my department for my (economics) Masters. It is competitive but someone has to get it! I didn't expect it to be me: I was a mature student with a first (at the time it was only a predicted first) but not from a Russell Group uni, my A levels are flaky to say the least, I had no relevant work experience or contacts in the field or academia. But something I wrote on the application statement must have ticked some boxes - or everyone else who applied must have been an even less likely bet than me. ;)
The uni listed all the available scholarships on their web pages and from there it was easy to see which I was eligible to apply for and how to do so.

Good luck!

I was all ready to look at a CDL and got the paperwork but thankfully never had to go through the actual application process. In retrospect I could not really have afforded to do it this way - the CDL only goes up to an absolute max of £10k and my MSc was nearly £9k in course fees alone, before looking at childcare etc. But your circs may be entirely different - economics is frequently the most expensive among the social sciences!

Definitely see what pots of money are out there and apply for any that fit. Worst case scenario it's good practice and each application will be better than the last. :)

I work in admissions at a very well known highly ranked uni. If I am being honest, most of my Master's students are young and have wealthy parents who fund it. The ones who don't get a mixture of funding - you will likely find that being a parent will enable you to access more non repayable grants both from Student Finance (where you can now also apply for a postgrad loan, in addition to the CDL) and also from the uni. We have a lot of support available to students who are also parents including a heavily subsidised on site nursery (which is only open to staff & students) and I imagine other unis are the same. Just Google the name of your uni and postgraduate funding then it'll give you the relevant contact details to speak to someone who can help.

What subject? Social work degree is social sciences and there’s a merit based NHS bursary for that course. It’s also worth contacting the uni you are interested in direct to discuss potential for other bursaries. For my masters there was a uni bursary aimed at helping underrepresented groups access postgrad education and when I think about it both of the women who got the bursary that year were single parents