Scholarship and Funding Opportunities

Applications are now closed. Thank you for your interest.

The Department of Linguistics and English Language (LAEL) at Lancaster University is pleased to announce a £1,500 bursary for one student entering the MA in Corpus Linguistics programme at Lancaster University in October 2023. The bursary is funded by the British Council as part of the Aptis Corpus development and research project. Through this award, we aim to support training and research in corpus methods and their application in different areas of society.

Eligibility: The award is open to UK and international students. At the time of application, you should have submitted a complete application to the MA in Corpus Linguistics programme. See for more details. You do not have to hold an offer of a place on the MA programme at the time of your application for the bursary.

Deadline: Applications are now closed. Thank you for your interest.

How to apply? To apply for the bursary, please fill and submit the bursary application form.

Contact: If you have any questions about the bursary or the application process, you can contact Dr Dana Gablasova.

What is the award selection process? The applications will be evaluated by an expert panel. Shortlisted candidates will be invited for a short interview (conducted online). We aim to notify the shortlisted candidates by Monday, 21 August 2023. The provisional dates for the interviews are 24-25 August 2023.

The award: The award will be made on a competitive basis. It will be provided as a reduction from the programme fees in the first year of the study. The award holder will be asked to focus their dissertation project on a corpus-based analysis of the British Council–Lancaster Aptis corpus. All the relevant skills for the corpus analysis will be acquired in the course of the programme, and the research topic will be finalised in consultation with the dissertation supervisor, who will provide appropriate support and guidance throughout the dissertation project.

The British Council–Lancaster Aptis Corpus: This corpus represents an exciting resource for investigating different aspects (e.g., grammatical, lexical, communicative strategies) of language use of L2 English speakers and relating the findings to language testing, language learning or to broader issues in spoken communication. The corpus was developed by the British Council and Lancaster University. It consists of 1,450 transcribed exams from the Speaking component of the Aptis General exam (www.britishcouncil.org/exam/aptis), a major international English examination, developed and administered by the British Council. The corpus contains data from L2 English speakers at four different levels of proficiency (beginner, lower-intermediate, intermediate and advanced) and from three L1 backgrounds: Arabic, Chinese and Spanish.

Applications are now closed. Thank you for your interest

The Department of Linguistics and English Language (LAEL) at Lancaster University is pleased to announce a £1,500 bursary for one student entering the part-time MA in Language Testing (distance) programme at Lancaster University in October 2023. The bursary is funded by the British Council as part of the Aptis Corpus development and research project. This award aims to support training and research in language testing.

Eligibility: The award is open to UK and international students. At the time of application, you should have submitted a complete application to the MA in Language Testing programme. See Lancaster Global Scholarship for more details. You do not have to hold an offer of a place on the MA programme at the time of your application for the bursary.

Deadline: Applications are now closed. Thank you for your interest.

How to apply? To apply for the bursary, please fill and submit the bursary application form.

Contact: If you have any questions about the bursary or the application process, you can contact Dr John Pill.

What is the award selection process? The applications will be evaluated by an expert panel. Shortlisted candidates will be invited for a brief interview (conducted online). We aim to notify the shortlisted candidates by Monday, 21 August 2023. The provisional dates for the interviews are 24-25 August 2023.

The award: The award will be made on a competitive basis. It will be provided as a deduction from the programme fees in the first year of study. The award holder will be asked to link their dissertation project to the British Council–Lancaster Aptis Corpus and its use in language testing research. Relevant research skills will be covered during the taught MA programme, and the research topic will be agreed with the dissertation supervisor, who will provide appropriate support and guidance throughout the dissertation project.

The British Council–Lancaster Aptis Corpus: This corpus represents an exciting resource for investigating different aspects (e.g., grammatical, lexical, communicative strategies) of language use of L2 English speakers and relating the findings to language testing, language learning or to broader issues in spoken communication. The corpus was developed by the British Council and Lancaster University. It consists of 1,450 transcribed exams from the Speaking component of the Aptis General exam, a major international English examination, developed and administered by the British Council. The corpus contains data from L2 English speakers at four different levels of proficiency (beginner, lower-intermediate, intermediate and advanced) and from three L1 backgrounds: Arabic, Chinese and Spanish.

To encourage the academic and professional development of promising university graduates and to promote greater diversity in the language testing community in the UK, the British Council is offering two fixed-term apprenticeships to eligible applicants from ethnic minorities who are resident in the UK.

The opportunity to work full-time for two years as an apprentice with the British Council in the UK is offered in collaboration with Lancaster University. While working, each apprentice will also study part-time on the internationally renowned online MA programme in Language Testing at Lancaster University. This also takes two years, with five taught modules and a concluding dissertation project.

At the British Council, the apprentices will spend their first year working “hands on” with the team responsible for the development and delivery of English language tests. In the second year, they will join the team with responsibility for British Council language testing research. This experience will support their dissertation project, completed in the final six months of the academic programme at Lancaster University.

The working location for apprentices can be flexible (by agreement) but they should be able to attend one of the British Council offices in the UK on request (in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Cardiff or Belfast). The MA programme is delivered fully online.

The timeline for 2023 application is:

• Initial application submitted online by Monday, 14 August 2023
• Shortlisted applicants invited to online interview by Monday, 21 August 2023
• Online interviews held on Friday, 25 August 2023
• Offers made by Friday, 1 September 2023
• Apprenticeship starts in mid/late September 2023
• MA programme starts in late September 2023 with online orientation

Initial applications (expressions of interest) are to be made through Lancaster University using this application form.

Please direct any questions to Dr John Pill.

The scheme is being evaluated. It may run in 2024. Please come back to check for updates.

Lancaster University forms part of the ESRC's North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP). Each year, around 60 studentships are awarded across the four institutions that make up the partnership for research in areas covered by the ESRC.

• Deadline: 1st Feb 2023
• PhD application deadline: 1st Jan 2023

Eligibility

Funding is available to support students eligible for Home or International fees. Please visit the websites of the North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership and UKRI for further details regarding eligibility criteria.

Schemes

• 1+3 Scheme (Master's Degree followed by PhD)
• +3 Scheme (PhD only)

Further Details

• ESRC Studentships
• ESRC – How to Apply

Lancaster University is delighted to announce that we will offer a generous scholarship to students who are liable for Home tuition fees. The scholarship is awarded as a tuition fee waiver for Postgraduate Taught programmes, for 2023 entry and will be automatically awarded if students meet the eligibility criteria and terms and conditions outlined in the link below.

How to apply: You will be automatically considered for this funding when you apply

Eligibility: Home students

Schemes: Postgraduate taught students

Lancaster Master's Scholarship

The Department offers one 'fees-only' bursary for students wishing to study for a Master's on any of our MA programmes, including both campus-based and by-distance programmes. The recipient will need to meet their general living expenses themselves.

Deadline: 26th May 2023

MA application deadline: 26th April 2023

Eligibility: Open to UK applicants only.

Applications should be made on the appropriate Scholarship Application Form and should be sent to postgraduatelinguistics@lancaster.ac.uk.

Award criteria: The scholarships will be awarded on a competitive basis. Candidates for a scholarship will be ranked based on the following criteria:

1. Academic ability (as evidenced by academic record and references)
2. Suitability for the programme applied for
3. Commitment to scholarship in the relevant field(s)
4. Potential for contribution to scholarship and society more generally

This scholarship for MA study was originally set up by the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster to mark the retirement of Professor Geoffrey Leech, who sadly died in August 2014. The scholarship continues thanks to a bequeathment left by Professor Leech. Geoff Leech was one of our most eminent and long-serving colleagues and was internationally renowned for his pioneering work in modern English grammar, stylistics, pragmatics and corpus linguistics. As co-author of the Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language and the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, he was and remains one of the foremost authorities on the English language. The scholarship is for study on any of our MA programmes, both campus-based and by distance. The recipient will need to meet their general living expenses themselves.

Deadline: 24th Feb 2023

MA application deadline: 24th Jan 2023

Eligibility: Open to UK applicants only.

How to Apply: Applications should be made on the appropriate Scholarship Application Form and should be sent to postgraduatelinguistics@lancaster.ac.uk.

Lancaster University is delighted to announce that we will offer a generous scholarship to high-achieving students from all international countries, who are liable for International tuition fees. The scholarship is awarded as a tuition fee waiver for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught programmes for 2023 entry and will be automatically awarded if students meet the eligibility criteria and terms and conditions outlined in the link below.

Deadline: TBC

Eligibility: International students

Schemes: Undergraduate or postgraduate taught students

Lancaster Global Scholarship

The Peel Studentship Trust was established in 1964, by donations from the Dowager Countess Eleanor Peel Trust. The awards are available for the support of students for first or higher degrees, in any subject. The period of the award is one academic year, although students can apply each year.

Deadline: tbc

Lancaster University will offer a reduction in tuition fees to all taught master's programmes for eligible applicants, determined by the level of undergraduate or postgraduate award achieved.

You do not need to apply for this scholarship, you will qualify automatically if you meet the eligibility criteria and the course entry requirements.

Alumni loyalty scholarship

In November 2015 the UK Government introduced a postgraduate loan scheme. A Postgraduate Master's Loan can help with course fees and living costs while you study a postgraduate master’s course.

For full details visit Master's Loan Scheme.