Scholarship eligibility: how to read the criteria

At a glance

The criteria that disqualify silently

• Work experience minimums, counted in a specific way — full-time, after graduation, in a relevant field.
• Nationality and residence, which sometimes require residence rather than citizenship.
• Age limits, still used by several trusts.
• Field restrictions, which are often narrower than the award's name suggests.
• Return obligations, which are a condition rather than an expectation.
• Prior funding, where holding another award disqualifies you or reduces this one.

Work experience is the one most often misjudged. Internships, part-time work and pre-graduation roles frequently do not count, and the definition is in the guidance rather than the summary.

Reading them properly

1. Read the full guidance document, not the summary page.
2. Write each criterion down and answer it with a yes or no about yourself.
3. Where a criterion is ambiguous, ask the administrator. They answer, and the answer is binding.
4. Check the conditions attached to holding the award, not only to winning it.

If you are ineligible this year but would be eligible next year, that is a plan rather than a disappointment — and it is worth knowing in month one rather than month five.

The awards we list

Showing 12 of 100, most searched first. Each one carries its own deadline, eligibility and the source we read it from.