What is this website?

This website was set up to share resources for funding postgraduate study in the UK. It was initially set up by staff and prospective students of the MA Social Media at Birmingham School of Media, a part of Birmingham City University but we have opened it up for other people to add to.

Where should I start?

There're four key ways to fund your study. Choose the one which might be right for you, and find out more. If you're unsure, read them all:

• Self funded
• Grant funded
• Loan funded
• Sponsorship 
• Other financial advice

For a quick introduction, Prospects have a useful video that outlines your options.

Why a Wiki?

As strange as it may sound, academic staff in universities know very little about student finance: they know about as much as students do. When people enquire about courses they expect the staff managing them to know all about funding, accommodation, visas etc. but in fact most academic staff only really know about their own course content. What we did realise is that funding options are complicated and changeable.

We set up a Wiki so that people could share information on postgraduate funding. We committed to setting up the first few pages. If this website is useful, then we hope people will add to it. If it's not, then that will tell us that this isn't the way to record this information.

How can I contribute to this project?

If you want to add more information to the website you can. You'll need to login (if you already have a PBworks account) or register first. There are two main ways to contribute:

1. Add / Edit Content: you could add new pages or edit existing ones. This is useful for a major revision or addition, e.g. adding a new funding opportunity to the website.
2. Comments: add a comment to any page. This might be useful if you want to share a story or anecdote that is of interest to readers but isn't part of the core information.

Limitations of this website

• Some of the information might be helpful to those wishing to study in other countries, or those who wish to study undergraduate courses, but we have set it up to advise postgraduates primarily.
• We've made access to editing this site public. That means that this website does not represent the views and opinions of Birmingham City University.
• Information may be out of date, if you find something that is no longer correct do please correct it.
• You should verify information here with its original source, i.e. if the website tells you that organisation X is offering grant funding you should verify this by visiting organisation X's website or calling them!