Bursary schemes

We provide bursaries for undergraduate of all years, including international students, to undertake work experience that they might not otherwise be able to afford.

The bursaries are, in particular, designed to support students who:

  • Hold no prior work experience (this includes volunteering, part-time work, internships, work shadowing)
  • Want to undertake work experience in a role/sector for which no previous work experience is held
  • Hold former work experience but who want to explore a different role/sector to help with career decision-making

Bursary strands availabe

Important information before applying

  • If you have been awarded a bursary previously, you can apply again, however, you must strongly demonstrate how this experience is different, and builds upon the previous opportunity for which you received an award.
  • Students can only apply for one bursary scheme, not both.
  • The bursaries are designed to act as a contribution towards the cost of your work experience. Depending on the performance of your overall application, you may receive all, part of, or none of the funds you have requested. Therefore as part of your application you must demonstrate and identify alternative funding options as a contingency should you not be awarded all of your requested funds; you should not fully rely on the bursary to fund your experience.
  • The bursaries cannot be used to cover the registration/administrative fees for opportunities which students must pay to undertake - exceptions may be considered on a case by case basis. The bursaries can primarily cover costs associated with travel (including vaccinations and visas), accommodation and living costs.

Students who have received a bursary reported they had developed valuable career-specific skills they could not have developed elsewhere as a result of their work experience. Even those who were unsuccessful in receiving a bursary, reported feeling better equipped to deal with other work experience applications, interviews and presentations.

Additional funding opportunities

In addition to the University of Birmingham bursaries, you may be eligible to apply to external organisations for funding to help with your work experience or internship. We will add these to the Careers Network database, where you can find details by searching for 'funding opportunities'.

There are also some national funding schemes available for doctoral students. Additionally, we have put together a guide to some other schemes and organisations that may be able to provide you with funding for work experience.

Previous bursary winners

In the past we have funded work experience in field archaeology, the Poetry Society in London, advertising and buying positions, health care (both in the UK and overseas), community development placements, scientific and biological research, international development opportunities and many more.

Fundraising

Coming soon.

Enhanced Transcripts

The University of Birmingham will be introducing an enhanced transcript system with a view to these being available from July 2016. In addition to academic achievement, the enhanced transcript will provide information about verifiable extracurricular activities such work experience bursaries.

Verification of this activity will be made available to the University’s central records system and it will automatically appear on the transcript. As part of the bursary process, you will be asked know if you do not want the activity to appear on your transcript.