Postgraduate taught degree programmes

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Funding your studies

We know that finances are a concern for all postgraduate students. To find out what assistance is available, and to get tips and tools to help your money go further, visit our Student Finance site, which includes sections on financial aid, budgeting, paying tax and setting up bank accounts.

Student Awards Agency for Scotland

www.student-support-saas.gov.uk

The other main source of public funding for Scottish domiciled full-time postgraduate students applying to programmes other than Arts and Humanities is the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS). The Scottish Executive, through SAAS, funds the following areas of postgraduate study:

  • The Postgraduate Students’ Allowance Scheme, which currently makes around 2,500 awards annually to full-time postgraduate students for nine months’ taught postgraduate diploma programmes on largely vocational subjects identified by the Government as ‘priority’ areas, eg, information technology, divinity and engineering.
  • The Professional Graduate Diploma of Education (PGDE), which pays fees for students studying PGDE and provides maintenance funding in the form of an income contingent loan. Applicants must meet certain eligibility criteria.
  • PgDiploma Teaching Adults, which pays part of the tuition fees for students studying PgDiploma Teaching Adults on a full-time basis and provides maintenance funding in the form of an income contingent loan. Applicants must meet certain eligibility criteria.

For further information and application packs, contact SAAS (Tel: 0845 111 1711, email: saas.gov@scotland.gsi.gov.uk).

Useful publications

Information on sources of funding may be obtained from the following websites:

There are also a number of publications providing information on grants and scholarships which are available from most good libraries.

Graduate Teaching Assistantships

Some departments offer Graduate Teaching Assistantships to postgraduate research students, which involve conducting tutorials and undertaking other teaching-related duties for first and second-year undergraduate students. Many students find that being a Graduate Teaching Assistant is an excellent way of gaining valuable work experience, as well as a means of supplementing their income. You should enquire at the relevant faculty or graduate school office listed in this Prospectus for information on opportunities available in your destination department.

All new GTAs (Graduate Teaching Assistants, Tutors and Laboratory Demonstrators) are required to undergo training to aid them in their teaching duties. The Learning & Teaching Centre is responsible for half of this training with the GTA's own department being responsible for the other half. The training provided by the centre aims to:

  • provide a brief introduction to teaching and learning at the University
  • develop an insight into how students learn
  • encourage GTAs to reflect upon their teaching practices.

Statutory GTA training sessions will be arranged for you by your department or faculty. The sessions will occur as soon as possible during the first semester (September to January). The session you attend will be tailored to suit the teaching role you will find yourself in: usually working with tutorial groups or laboratory classes.