Allan and Nesta Ferguson Scholarships

Overview

Deadline: 2 April 2020

Thanks to the generosity of the Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable trust, three Allan and Nesta Ferguson Scholarships have been established for African Students (African nationals and resident in Africa), who wish to undertake a taught masters course at SOAS.

Each Allan and Nesta Ferguson Scholarship covers tuition fees in full and provides a maintenance grant, the total value of the scholarship is £30,555.

The Ferguson scholarship is awarded on the basis of academic merit.

Students offered an Allan and Nesta Ferguson Scholarship must take it up in the academic year 2020/21 and it cannot be carried forward to a later year.   

Eligible Programmes

• Full-time MA African Studies
• Full-time MA International Studies and Diplomacy
• Full-time MA Social Anthropology of Development

Candidate Criteria

Applicants should:

• Be nationals of and resident in an African country 
• Hold an undergraduate degree at the first class level 
• Hold an offer of admission to pursue one of the eligible programmes by the scholarship deadline.  Priority may be given to applicants with unconditional offers.  If your offer is conditional, please ensure you meet the conditions as soon as possible.
• Applicants must meet the English language condition of their offer of admission to study at SOAS as soon as possible but no later than 1 June 2020.  If your offer is conditional on English, please arrange your English test and ensure you meet the English requirement as soon as possible.
• Please note that most scholarships do not cover funding or even allow for Pre-sessionals. Please check the wording of your scholarship offer carefully to see if you are eligible for a Pre-sessional course or whether you need to achieve SOAS direct entry scores by the deadline specified in your scholarship terms and conditions.

Candidate Assessment

• Candidates will be assessed on academic merit by an Advisory Panel consisting of three academic members.
• The assessment of your application will be based on the information in your scholarship application.  Selectors will be looking at the degree results and also at academic references, statement and other relevant information.

Scholarship Application Deadline 

• Scholarship applications must be received no later than 15:00 (UK local time) on 2 April 2020.
• You must also submit a complete online application to your programme. It is recommended to apply for the programme about six weeks BEFORE the scholarship deadline (that is, by 20 February 2020). Please note that complete applications for admission can take up to 4 weeks to be considered by the Department, although this duration can vary depending on the time of year. You should be prepared to wait up to 6 weeks in busy periods.
• Late or incomplete applications will not be considered.

Number of Applications normally received

• 10 applications

Notification of Results

Successful candidates will be notified by end-June.  If you have not heard from us by end-June, you should assume that your application was unsuccessful.

Scholarship Application Procedures

You must follow two steps:

• STEP 1: Apply for your programme

You must submit a COMPLETE on-line application for admission.  

Applicants must have an offer of admission to pursue a full-time masters programme at SOAS by the scholarship application deadline. A complete application for admission includes transcripts, an explanation of the grading system for any degrees obtained outside of the UK, two references, CV and a personal statement.  The panel will be considering your scholarship application TOGETHER with your on-line application for admission.  Please note that complete applications for admission can take up to 4 weeks to be considered by the Department, although this duration can vary depending on the time of the year.  You should be prepared to wait up to 6 weeks in busy periods.

It is recommended to apply for the programme about six weeks BEFORE the scholarship deadline (that is, by 20 February 2020).

• STEP 2: Apply for the scholarship by 15:00 (UK local time) on 2 April 2020.
  

You must apply for this scholarship via the on-line application form which will open on 23 January 2020.