Scholarships and Awards

The Dr John C Carter Award in Museum Studies 

We are delighted to have been gifted an award by a Canadian alumnus of the School of Museum Studies. This award is open to all School of Museum Studies international students who meet the criteria below, however preference will be given to Canadian applicants. International students registered as full-time, campus-based, self-funded PGT (MA and MSc) students and PhD students may apply in 2023/24. 

One award of £750 will be made each year, in order to support a student to who will one day lead change and innovation in the museum, gallery and heritage field.

Applicants must meet all of the following eligibility criteria:

• Be studying full-time (campus-based) for a Postgraduate Diploma, Masters or PhD course with the School of Museum Studies.
• Be self-funding – students fully funded by governments, employers or other schemes are not eligible (students needing to take out/funded by a loan are eligible to apply for this bursary).
• Be an international student, whose home address is overseas and who is required to pay international fees.

Award decisions will be made by an awarding panel convened by the Head of School or her nominee. ^[1] Decisions will be based on the following criteria: 

1. Full compliance with all the above eligibility criteria, with preference given to Canadian applicants.
2. Evidenced personal circumstances which may limit the student’s opportunities for study at the University of Leicester (see the application form and below).
3. The case made by the applicant for the benefit they will gain from the bursary (see below).  

Where appropriate, the Head of School’s decision will be final.

How to apply: 

1. Complete the brief Application Form.  
2. Provide a Written Statement of no more than 500 words, summarising how, and why, the award will enable you to take up an opportunity that you would not otherwise have been able to utilise, specifically: 

• How will the award help your plan of study/research while registered for your campus-based MA/MSc/PGDip, or PhD, in the School of Museum Studies? For example, will it support research towards your MA/MSc dissertation or PhD thesis? Will it help with accommodation costs during your MA/MSc/PGDip placement?
• What are the expected outcomes of the award and what is the timeframe in which you expect to achieve them? And who are the potential beneficiaries, if any, in addition to you, the student?
• If there are any aspects within the totality of your personal experience and achievements that indicate an experience of educational disadvantage and which you are willing to disclose, please include an indication of them and of how your experience of them resulted in disadvantage. These could include but are not limited to: disability, refugee status, membership of a marginalised community, having overcome negative cultural expectations, discrimination on the grounds of gender/sex/sexual orientation, experience of poverty or of education in extreme low-resource settings, and/or a combination of these and other factors.
• Any particular demographic characteristic which you wish to declare and which is currently under-represented either in museums or in higher education and research, in Canada, the UK or elsewhere. 

    3. Reference Form. Send your completed application form and written statement to your nominated School referee (this should be your main PhD supervisor), requesting that they complete the short reference form and submit it to museum@le.ac.uk by the deadline.

    4. Submit your completed application form and your written statement to museum@le.ac.uk by the deadline.   

Award process timetable, 2023-24: 

15 May 2024: Deadline for receipt of student applications (Application Form + Written Statement) 
20 May 2024: Deadline for receipt of School Reference Form for each applicant 
30 May 2024: Awarding panel meets by this date to review applications according to the eligibility criteria and awarding criteria detailed above 
31 May 2024: Applicants will be notified of the panel’s decision, which will be final. 

 ^[1] The panel will usually comprise a minimum of three people, including where possible at least one of the campus-based PGT Programme Directors (or Director of Education), the Director of Postgraduate Research or another PGR-related office-holder among the staff, and one of our Museum Liaison & Employability Officers.