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University of Sunderland Robson Art and Design Scholarship 2025/26

Home / Terms and Conditions / Scholarships and bursaries / Sunderland Robson Art and Design Scholarship

Overview

Funded from a philanthropic donation via the University of Sunderland’s Development and Alumni Office, the Robson Art and Design Scholarship will support eligible undergraduate students who show passion and promise in their artistic field.

The scholarship offers a cash award of £1,000 for undergraduate students who study an eligible course and meet at least one of the widening participation priority awarding criteria detailed in section four.

There are five scholarships available.

By applying for this scholarship, you agree to participate in PR/marketing activity if awarded.

Who's eligible?

1. You must be a 'Home' or 'Overseas Island' student on an eligible 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 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 promise in your artistic field

As part of the application process, you must submit:

Your submissions will be assessed by the Awarding Committee and selection will be based on the following criteria:

4. You must meet at least one of the widening participation priority awarding criteria

When awarding this scholarship, priority will be given to applicants from the following groups:

Please note, if we need to verify your household income as part of your bursary application, you must have undertaken a means-tested Student Loans Company (SLC) assessment. You must also agree to share your data with the University via the SLC. The University will liaise with the SLC to verify household income.

How to apply

You can apply from March 2025. The deadline for applications is Sunday 31 August 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.

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

Receiving the scholarship

Once scholarships have been allocated, the successful students will be notified via email of their provisional award.

Students awarded the scholarship will receive one payment of £1,000 on the fifth working day in February 2026. You will be expected to produce an illustrated report upon successful completion of your course for publicity and stewardship purposes.

The scholarship cash payments will be paid via bank transfer into your UK bank account via the University’s Development Trust.

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.

Once provisional awards are made, the Development and Alumni Office will contact awardees via registered contact details. If you do not respond, we reserve the right to reallocate funding. If you do not supply us with the required information by February 2026, the scholarship 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 transfer to a course not listed above, you will not be eligible for this scholarship.

If you transfer to another course outside the School of Art and Design, you will not be eligible for this scholarship.

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

If you withdraw in the same academic year after receiving your scholarship payment, you will be required to return the funding to the Development Trust.

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.

Income assessed applications will be based on the Student Loans Company’s definition and assessment of household income. Your declared household income will be checked and verified. Awards will only be offered to those students who have a household income of £47,500 or less.

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:

Funding is provided by the University’s Development Trust, registered charity 1041658.

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.

Appendix

Use the information below to determine what evidence will be required as proof of priority group.

You are a Gypsy, Traveller, Roma, Showman or Boater

This can be verified by one of the following:

You are an asylum seeker

This can be verified by one of the following:

You are a refugee

Your refugee status can be verified using Home Office documents.

You have caring responsibilities

This can be verified by one of the following:

You have an annual household income of £27,500 or less

If you are a ‘Home’ student who has applied for means-tested loans and grants from the Student Loans Company (SLC), the University will liaise with the SLC to verify your household income.

You have an annual household income between £27,501 and £47,500

If you are a ‘Home’ student who has applied for means-tested loans and grants from the Student Loans Company (SLC), the University will liaise with the SLC to verify your household income.

You are a mature student (aged 21+ at the start of the course)

Your student record will evidence this using your date of birth, following your application and enrolment.

You are care-experienced

At the University of Sunderland, we have adopted the broader definition of ‘care-experienced’ as this term is inclusive of the range of care settings someone may have experienced.

Our definition of care-experienced is someone who, at any stage of their life, and for any length of time, has been in care e.g. looked after by the local authority.

This includes the following:

For further information please contact the We Care Team on 0191 515 2216 or email care.contact@sunderland.ac.uk.

You are an estranged student

You have had no contact at all with your parents/carers for at least 12 months and this is unlikely to change.

or

You can demonstrate on other grounds that you are irreconcilably estranged from your parents/carers (e.g. exceptional circumstances or assessed as independent by Student Finance England or by a Local Authority because you are estranged from both parents/carers).

For estrangement cases that cannot be confirmed by Student Finance England (SFE), proof of evidence of ‘genuine estrangement’ would need to be supplied to the University. All applications of estrangement are assessed on an individual basis.

You will not be considered estranged on the basis that

Published: 31 October 2024

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