Higher Education in the United Kingdom
Students interested in nationally competitive scholarships often look at studying in the UK due to the allure of the Rhodes, Marshall and Gates Cambridge awards. This page provides some general links to help you further investigate opportunities for graduate study in the UK.
If you are looking to study abroad in the UK as an undergraduate, you should consult with the Office of International Programs in 304 Fairchild Hall to learn about available study abroad options. Also check out the Fulbright Summer Institute.
General Information
The United Kingdom has many excellence universities, and it can be challenging to identify the right school for your interests. Here a few links to help you begin to sort out the options.
Research Excellence Framework 2021
- Assesses the quality of research at various UK institutions across a wide variety of disciplines. Use the REF to develop a shortlist of institutions that are strong in your particular field of study.
The Times Good University Guide
- Scores and then ranks the UK universities by compiling various measures of quality. All rating and ranking exercises should be taken with a grain of salt but it can help you develop a list of schools to investigate more closely, and it can also offer some sense of where a school generally falls in terms of public perception.
- The Guardian competes with the Times and also has developed its own set of rankings. Note that, in the UK, these lists are most commonly called "League Tables".
Interactive Map of UK Universities
- Cool interactive page created by the University of Wolverhampton. This page will allow you to link quickly to particular pages on the websites of those schools that you want to investigate further.
Additional Funding Opportunities
Beyond Rhodes, Marshall and Gates, there are some other attractive funding options to consider. Education UK: Scholarships and Financial Support offers some good general funding information, and note the "scholarship search" at the top of the page.
Fulbright U.S. Student Grants fund study in the UK (among other destinations) as does the Rotary Peace Fellowship. UK schools also participate in various Erasmus Mundus programs.
Many individual universities offer internal funding for international students to study there. Warwick and Edinburgh are provided here as examples. Note that some internal awards only provide partial funding and/or restrict citizenship to certain countries. Some alumni organizations offer notable awards as well, such as AFLSE (to LSE) and AFSOAS (to SOAS).
There are also several government-backed programs aside from the Marshall. Saltire Scholarships fund study at Scottish universities. The Chevening and Commonwealth awards primarily target non-American international students.
The Office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships is happy to help K-State students sort out their options and unravel some of the distinctions between the American and UK educational systems. Contact Beth Powers at bethpowers@k-state.edu, or 785-532-3422 to set up an appointment.