Office for Students funded Scholarship for conversion MSc in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence)

£10,000.  This will be paid in 3 tranches at the end of October 2023, January 2024 and April 2024.

The deadline for this scholarship for 2023/24 has passed.  Details for 2024/25 will be published here when available.

• Undergraduate degree not from core-STEM subjects
• Students from an under-represented background (e.g. female, black, disabled, low socio-economic background – see further details Eligiblitycriteria.pdf (kent.ac.uk)
• Nationality or residency status that meets the postgraduate masters’ loan criteria (https://www.gov.uk/masters-loan/eligibility).

The Office for Students has launched a scholarship program that aims to boost the number and diversity of graduates in Artificial Intelligence. The scholarship program aims to increase diversity and address digital skills gaps in the workforce, which supports the government’s priority to invest in AI to encourage innovation in every sector and region.

The School of Computing has been awarded 16 scholarships of £10,000 each, for eligible students for the 2023 start of our conversion MSc in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) program.

Our programme offers Scholarships of £10,000 that are available for underrepresented students listed in the following eligibility criteria.  Eligible students should meet at least one or more of the criteria listed.  

• Female Students
• Black students (Defined in line with the HESA student ethnicity codes)
  
  • 21 Black of Black British – Caribbean
  • 22 Black or Black British – African
  • 29 Other Black background
  • 41 Mixed – White and Black Caribbean
  • 42 Mixed – White and Black African
• Disabled students (as defined under the Equality Act 2010)
• Students from low socioeconomic background (Assessed through a questionnaire as recommended by the UK Guidance on measuring socio-economic background).  Students from areas of the UK where young people are less likely to go on to higher education may be eligible. Please check if your home postcode fits into the POLAR quintiles 1 or 2 https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/young-participation-by-area/
• Care experienced students
• Estranged students
• Gypsy, Roma, Traveller students
• Refugees
• Children from military families, veterans and partners of military personnel.

Previous Degree

One of the goals of the scholarship scheme is to increase the supply of digitally skilled workers by converting graduates who did not study a STEM undergraduate degree. Therefore, this scholarship is not available for students with a core-STEM undergraduate degree.  These include subjects such as computer science, physics, engineering, mathematics, statistics, IT.

Students in “far-STEM” subjects, (e.g. biology, geology, psychology, medicine) or non-STEM subjects, are eligible.

Eligible Countries

The primary goal of these scholarships is to respond to the shortage of data science and AI specialists in the UK, by increasing the UK AI and Data Science workforce. Therefore, to be eligible for scholarship funding students must meet the nationality or residency status criteria to qualify for the postgraduate masters’ loan: https://www.gov.uk/masters-loan/eligibility

This OfS Scholarship cannot be combined with other Scholarships the University may offer.