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Esports Scholarship 2025/26

Home / Terms and Conditions / Scholarships and bursaries / Esports Scholarship

Overview

The University of Sunderland Esports Scholarship provides a generous support package for eligible students with a passion for Esports. This scholarship aims to support eligible undergraduate students to fulfil their potential whilst studying an eligible Faculty of Business, and Technology course.

The scholarship offers the following support for every year of continuous study (excluding placement and study abroad year):

There are five scholarships available.

By applying for the scholarship, and if awarded, you agree to promote the University of Sunderland and broaden the University’s reach by streaming, creating content YouTube or any other preferred social media platform. Such promotions to be in accordance with guidelines provided by the University.

Who's eligible?

1. You must be a ‘Home’ or ‘Overseas Island’ student on an eligible full-time course

The Government classes all students as ‘Home’ or ‘International’. This status determines which tuition fees you pay, and which scholarships and bursaries you may be eligible to receive.

Overseas Island; Isle of Man and the Channel Islands students are eligible.

EU students with a UK Settled Status at the time of application are eligible.

International students are not eligible.

You must be a first-year student applying to commence your studies in autumn 2025, or, entering level one in academic year 2025/26 having completed an eligible Integrated Foundation Year course.

2. You must apply for and meet the conditions of your offer, then successfully enrol onto and study an eligible course

You must successfully enrol onto one of the following eligible full-time courses in academic year 2025/26:

Alternatively, you must be entering level one in academic year 2025/26 having completed one of the following Integrated Foundation Year courses:

3. You must demonstrate passion and commitment to esports

As part of the application process, you must submit a statement of up to 2,000 characters demonstrating your passion and commitment to Esports as a competitive industry, and your aspirations for the future. Please also detail any recent esports-related achievements.

How do I apply?

You can apply from March 2025. The deadline for applications is Thursday 31 July 2025. Once the deadline has passed, we are not permitted to accept any further applications.

You can apply via your myApplication account.

Your username is your student number, which can be found on all correspondence you have received from the University. If you are unsure of your student number, please contact Student Administration at studentadmin@sunderland.ac.uk.

Please note that applying does not guarantee you will be awarded this scholarship. The University of Sunderland Esports Scholarship 2025/26 will be awarded following an application process. All applications that meet the criteria will be shortlisted for an interview with the faculty panel.

Interviews will take place in September 2025.

All applications that meet the criteria will be shortlisted for consideration.

Receiving the Scholarship

The scholarship recipients will receive the following cash payments on the fifth working day in February in each year of study, subject to validation checks and academic progression:

The University of Sunderland Esports Scholarship also offers eligible students up to £750 to attend an esports tournament or competition (limited to UK only). This can cover travel, hotel or entry costs incurred as a result of attending the event. The University will reimburse you, the student, up to the value of £750 upon receipt of evidence of payment.

Additional information

If you have not registered on your course within three weeks of the course start date or provided sufficient evidence of eligibility, the scholarship or bursary will be withdrawn and offered to another eligible student.

If you do not supply us with the required information by November 2025, the scholarship or bursary provisional award will be withdrawn.

If you withdraw from your course before receiving a scholarship or bursary payment, the award will be withdrawn. If you withdraw after a payment is made, the University will not seek reimbursement however, you will not receive any further instalments.

The award is conditional on you maintaining satisfactory engagement and making academic progress on your course in the reasonable opinion of the programme team.

The University agrees to pay you, the student, all awards, and payments that are due to you while you are on your course of study. If a scholarship or bursary payment is made to you in error, the University reserves the right to recover any awards or overpayments from you, the student. This may result in you being asked to repay an award if it was paid to you in error. It is also the responsibility of you, the student, to ensure that all awards and payments received are accurate. Any payment discrepancies will be rectified by the University or the student.

If you transfer to another course and repeat a year, or repeat a year of the same course, the award will not be paid in the repeated year. Any payments due to you will continue once you progress onto the following level (s) of study on the course.

If you are on a placement year or studying for a year and not paying full fees, the award will not be paid during that year.

If you take a leave of absence (LOAB), your payments will stop until you return and progress academically.

If you are in debt to the University to the value of £50 or more, you will not receive payment until the debt has been cleared.

All payments will be made into your UK bank account. It is your responsibility to enter your bank details and ensure these are kept up to date. If you fail to enter your bank details to enable payments to be made to you before your course end date (or the date of leaving your course if earlier), all scholarships, bursaries, and payments will be withdrawn.

As part of the admissions process, the University will verify various aspects of a UCAS or direct application to determine that you should be classed as ‘Home’. The following criteria will be verified:

Disclaimer

Every effort is made to ensure that all details included in these guidance notes are correct at the time of writing. They are intended to act as an information source only, and in no way should they be considered legally binding or guarantee an award.

The University will not be deemed to be in breach of any legal or contractual obligations due to changes to eligibility criteria beyond the reasonable control of the University. It should therefore be noted that these guidance notes are regularly reviewed and are naturally subject to change, sometimes without notice. The University’s decision is final.

Published: 18 October 2024

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