Geography Undergraduate Scholarships Application 2012–2013

The Department is able to offer scholarships to current students who can demonstrate a particular financial need.

Applications will be considered for support in the following areas and eligible students are invited to apply by Thursday 7 March 2013:

1. Dissertation fieldwork (especially fieldwork overseas) (current L2 students only)
2. Overseas field class attendance (current L2 students only)
3. Personal hardship (all students)

To be eligible for a scholarship, you must be an undergraduate student at the University of Sheffield who is currently registered on a Geography course. Further, if you are seeking support for field class attendance, you must be registered (or seeking to register) for a field class.

There is no formal limit to the value of support that can be requested, but applicants should note that we expect to receive a large number of applications and that the total value of all awards is limited. Awards for fieldwork will typically be worth around £500, with a maximum limit of £1,500 in special circumstances, and are intended to support 5 to 10 students annually.

The selection process will be carried out by a panel, whose decision will be final, and successful applicants will be notified by Tuesday 9 April 2013. Successful applications will be selected on grounds of academic merit and/or potential, and preference will be given to students who are in financial hardship. Where a decision is required between applications of similar worthiness for an award, an additional criterion of a study interest in geoscience will be taken into account.

Information we need in support of your application

The application form can be downloaded from MOLE

For all applications, we need to know a little about yourself and your personal circumstances, why you chose your particular course, and why you chose to study at Sheffield (section 1). Please ensure that you also inform us of any special circumstances that you think are relevant to the panel’s decision-making process. Include relevant documents, if appropriate.

For hardship applications, we would also like to know how the award would make a difference to your studies (section 2). Applications to support overseas field class attendance must justify your attendance on academic grounds (section 3). For applications to support dissertation fieldwork, you must demonstrate how the work will benefit from the provision of the award, and the form must be signed by your dissertation supervisor (section 4).

Payment and other conditions of the award

Successful applicants will receive a cheque or bank transfer. For field class attendance, payment may be via an appropriate reduction in the student contribution, or a one off payment after your payment of the field class deposit, as appropriate. For dissertation fieldwork, fieldwork must be undertaken in the summer between Level 2 and Level 3 of your undergraduate study, and payment will be deferred until you have formally passed all compulsory elements of the relevant L2 research design module.

Thanking our donors

The scholarships and bursaries are funded through donations by alumni of the Department. If you receive an award, you will be asked to help us to thank our donors. This could involve, for example, writing a thank you letter to a donor, providing us with a quote and photo for our alumni publications, and/or providing details on your progress and how the award has helped you.

Completed applications and any accompanying information must be submitted in hardcopy only to the Geography Office by 4pm on the day of the application deadline.