Aston University Forward Scholarships 2025-2026

Aston University invite students provisionally offered a place to study at Aston University for 2025 to apply for an Aston Forward Scholarship worth £5,000. Aston will award these scholarships to students with amazing ambitions, students wanting to create a better world through community activity or business ideas, or to those who have overcome significant barriers to study at Aston.

Table of Content

• Summary
• Benefits
• Requirements
• Interview Process
• Application Deadline
• How To Apply

Summary

• Application DeadlineOctober 4, 2025
• Value£5,000
• Study LevelUndergraduate
• SponsorAston University
• City to studyBirmingham
• School to studyAston University
• Eligible CountryUnited Kingdom

Benefits

£5,000

Requirements

• You must be starting a new full time undergraduate degree programme at Aston University between September 2025 and August 2026, or meeting the criteria for an exception to this as outlined in the Scholarship Eligibility Criteria PDF document.
• You must be classified as a home fee payer and in receipt of UK student support funding.
• You must be qualified to receive student support funding as part of the finance arrangements for new students starting their degree programmes between September 2025 and August 2026.
• If you have your fees paid by a sponsor you will not be eligible for an Aston Scholarship (eg a government grant to cover all or part of the tuition fees or a scholarship directly from business).
• You must come from a household with an annual income which has been assessed as being £25,000 per year or below. (Note that you can apply for this scholarship before your household income assessment has been finalised by Student Finance England).
• You will only be eligible to be considered for an Aston Forward Scholarship approved on household income for an academic year if you have made an application to be income assessed from the same year by Student Finance England, Student Finance Wales, Student Finance Northern Ireland or Student Awards Agency for Scotland. You can apply for a scholarship before your eligibility assessment has been finalised by the relevant awarding body.
• For 2025 entry, your income assessment, carried out by the Student Loans Company (SLC), must be finalised by 14th November 2025. This is so that the University is able to confirm you are eligible to receive any scholarship you have been provisionally awarded. You do NOT need to take out a loan, just undertake the financial assessment.

Selection Process

As well as meeting all of the above eligibility criteria, you must meet at least one of the below selection criteria. Please note, priority for scholarships will be given to those students who meet more than one of the selection criteria and whose essay questions are chosen by our assessors:

• Students who have progressed to Aston after successfully completing access routes (such as Pathway to Healthcare, Pathway to STEM, Pathway to Law, Pathway to Business, or a Foundation Year).
• Students whose studies have been disrupted by circumstances in their personal, social or domestic lives.
• Students who live in a geographical area with low levels of progression onto higher education.
• Students who have a disability or are in receipt of a personal independence payment.
• Students from an underrepresented group (Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities).

Aston also provides other scholarships for students classed as care leavers, young carers and estranged students, children from a military family or refugees. Information about this can be found under Aston Support Scholarships.

For full information, see Aston Universities Home Undergraduate Scholarship Eligibility Criteria document below:

• Scholarship Eligibility Criteria 2025/26 [PDF, 435MB]

This criteria provides further details for home undergraduate scholarships, the amounts awarded at each stage of the academic year and the implications of withdrawal or leave of absence on students' eligibility for scholarships.

Essay Assessment

When assessing the essay questions, we will be looking for scholars who demonstrate exceptional qualities in areas which could include ambitious career goals, entrepreneurial qualities, wanting to create a better world through community activity or business ideas, overcoming significant barriers, demonstrating resilience or academic performance.

We also want to hear how you see the Scholarship will make a difference to your University experience and ambitions.

If you have questions which are not answered in the scholarship FAQs, please get in touch.

Key dates

Applications for the UK undergraduate means tested scholarship for 2025 will open on 19th August, and will close on 4th October.

Your income assessment, carried out by the Student Loans Company (SLC), must be finalised by 15th November 2025. This is so that the University is able to confirm you are eligible to receive any scholarship you have been provisionally awarded. You do NOT need to take out a loan, just undertake the financial assessment."

Application Deadline

How To Apply

• If you have never completed a scholarship application before, the process can feel quite daunting. Before you start, read this great advice about what to do or not do when submitting a scholarship application.
•  Applications can be made through MAP by those with places confirmed at Aston.

For more details, visit Aston University Scholarship webpage