Imperial will provide funding totalling £1.5 million to academically excellent master's degree students from lower-income backgrounds.

The Imperial College Master's Support Scheme, which is funded by a grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), is a pilot scheme for the academic year starting autumn 2014 which will allow the College to provide successful UK applicants with grants towards tuition fees and, in some cases, their living expenses. 

The scholarships are designed to encourage the best and brightest students to pursue master's programmes in the Faculties of Natural Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and are aimed at those who might otherwise have been deterred from postgraduate study because of financial constraints.

John Neilson, Secretary & Registrar of Imperial College London, said:
"HEFCE's investment is a welcome boost to improving accessibility to Imperial's world-class postgraduate courses. We are committed to attracting the best and the brightest students from all backgrounds, and this scheme will strengthen the opportunities for these students to move on to high quality employment and research careers." 

Scholars will be selected based on academic excellence, with tuition fee waivers up to the value of £10,000 being awarded to successful applicants with household incomes of less than £42,611. Maintenance grants are also available to those from households with incomes of £25,000 or less, in addition to the tuition fee support.

Imperial is one of 20 universities to take part in HEFCE's pilot Postgraduate Support Scheme, a publicly-funded programme which will test ways of supporting progression into taught postgraduate education in England. 

The award will be available to Home students starting a master's course in October 2014, and is open to current undergraduate students or recent graduates. For further information, please visit: www.imperial.ac.uk/studentfinance/icmss