Check how changes to your circumstances, such as exam resits or a higher income, may impact a scholarship or bursary.
Types of changes
There are several reasons a scholarship or bursary might be affected:
- changing mode of attendance
- withdrawing from your course
- changing course
- resitting exams or sitting them later
- missed conditions
- changes to your income
- changes to a visa or immigration permissions.
Important: Scholarships, bursaries and other awards are different to student loans, which you generally pay back. Find out more about student loans.
Changing mode of attendance
Your mode of attendance is either full-time or part-time, whether you’re undergraduate or doing a Masters.
If you change from one to the other, this may affect the terms of your scholarship, such as its value or your eligibility to qualify for it at all.
Withdrawing from your course
Scholarships are normally awarded for a specific period of study.
If you temporarily withdraw from your course, you may lose your scholarship.
This means even if you return to your course later, you won’t get your scholarship.
You would not normally be expected to repay your scholarship.
If you leave the University permanently, your regular instalments will stop afterwards.
Changing course
If you decide to switch from one course to another, this may affect the terms of your scholarship.
How a scholarship might be affected depends on the change you’re planning to make.
Example: If you have a Mandela scholarship, you get this regardless of the course you’re studying. But if your scholarship is directly related to a subject or School, such as a SPRU scholarship, this could be void if you switched to another course within the Business School.
Resitting exams or sitting them later
If you’re an undergraduate student resitting an assessment or taking a sit later than our regular term dates, you may be rejected for a Masters scholarship.
For instance, if you apply for a Sussex Graduate Scholarship, you need your final classification (for example, a 2:1) to get the award.
If your resit or sit will improve your final classification, tell the Scholarships Office and they may be able to apply the scholarship later.
Find out more about resitting an assessment.
Maintaining your grades
Some undergraduate scholarships require you to maintain specific grades for each year of your course.
This will be specified in your scholarship offer letter.
If you miss the grades you need to keep the scholarship it will be withdrawn permanently. This means that even if you meet the threshold required in subsequent years, you can’t reapply for the scholarship.
Changes to your income
Bursaries are awarded based on your household income. If this goes up or down, it can affect your eligibility for a bursary.
Find out more about how household income is assessed by Student Finance England.
Most of our scholarships are not awarded based on your income. If you’re not sure, check your offer letter.
Changes to a visa or immigration permissions
If you’re studying on a visa, and it changes, this will not generally affect your scholarship.
However, if the visa changes will affect your course or the way you study, this could have an impact on a scholarship.
See more about changes to your studies with a visa.
If you’re a forced migrant, a change in your immigration permissions may affect the terms of your scholarship.
If you’re receiving the Article 26 Scholarship and your immigration status changes (allowing you to access Student Loans) you must notify the Scholarships Office.
What to do next
If you are concerned about how a scholarship or bursary may be affected by a change in your circumstances, you need to let us know before changing anything.
We can give you the knowledge you need to make the right decision.
For:
- scholarships, email scholarships@sussex.ac.uk.
- bursaries, email studentfunding@sussex.ac.uk
If you’re planning to study for a PhD, email doctoralschool@sussex.ac.uk.