Chamberlain Award 2025 entry

Level of study
Any Undergraduate
Subject area
Arts and Law, Engineering and Physical Sciences, Life and Environmental Sciences, Medicine and Health, Social Sciences
Nationality
UK
Type of Award
University
Deadline for applying
Closes 31/12/2025

Award Description

At Birmingham we believe that financial worries should not be a barrier to accessing higher education. If you are a UK student joining the University in September 2025 to undertake your first undergraduate degree then you may be eligible for additional financial support in the form of a Chamberlain Award. If you are a continuing student who joined the University in 2024/25, please see the Chamberlain Award 2024 entry page, or if you joined before the 2024/25 academic year, please see the Chamberlain Award information for continuing students.

Value of Award

For 2025 entry, the Chamberlain Award is up to £2,000 per year of study, dependent on household income and subject to continued eligibility and normal academic progression:

  • £2,000 award for students who have a household income of £25,000 or less
  • £1,000 award for students who have a housedhld income between £25,001 and £35,000

Awards will be paid in two equal instalments: one in late January 2026 and one in early May 2026. Payment will be made directly into the bank account you have nominated for your Maintenance Loan.

Care Leavers are eligible to receive the Enhanced Chamberlain Award as an alternative to the standard Chamberlain Award. Care Leavers must complete an application form for each year of study. Please visit our Enhanced Chamberlain Award webpage for more information.  Please note that if we do not receive an application form from you, you will be considered for the standard Chamberlain Award based on your household income. You cannot hold both an Enhanced Chamberlain Award and a standard one. 

Eligibility Criteria

In order to be eligible for a standard Chamberlain Award you must:
  • be a UK-resident student undertaking a first undergraduate degree at the University of Birmingham's UK campus
  • be a normally registered student at the University of Birmingham
  • be deemed eligible for maintenance support by the Student Loans Company (SLC)
  • be means tested by the SLC in each year of study and agree to share your household income information with the University (please note that whilst you do need to apply for a Maintenance Loan from the SLC to be considered for a Chamberlain Award, you do not need to take any Maintenance Loan offered to you by the SLC. Please do not cancel your application with the SLC should you not wish to take out a Maintenance Loan)
  • be liable for the full standard undergraduate fee, paid to the University of Birmingham/
  • not be eligible to receive NHS funding, with the exception of MBChB Medicine and Surgery or BDS Dental Surgery
  • not be on an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme
  • not be transferring from another institution
  • have a household income of £35,000 or less, as verified by the relevant SLC agency

The Chamberlain Award will be subject to annual reassessment to determine continued eligibility. 

How to Apply

There is not a separate application form for the Chamberlain Award – it is all done through your Student Finance application. In order for us to be able to assess you for a Chamberlain Award you will need to apply for a means-tested maintenance loan with the Student Loans Company (SLC) in each year of study.  You do not need to take out a loan if you do not want to, but you must go through the loan application process every year in order for us to be able to assess you for an award. Please do not leave it too late to apply for Student Finance: you need to be assessed by the SLC and reported to us as being eligible for maintenance support by the 31 December each year in order to meet the deadline for the Chamberlain Award. It is also really important that you do not cancel your loan application with the SLC, even if you do not wish to take out maintenance support, as that will cause us to lose the confirmation of your Chamberlain Award entitlement. Instead, you should enter zero as the amount you want to borrow on your declaration form.

Provided you and your parents/guardians have not opted out of sharing your information on your Student Finance application, we will then assess you based on your household income. You will then be sent an email from the SLC system confirming that your entitlement notification letter is available to view online. You will need to login to your student finance account to view your letter.

Please note, Student Finance England's secure sites start with 'https' and a small padlock icon appears at the bottom of the browser window. This padlock will confirm the certificate of the website and ensure you are not on a fraudulent site.

Awards are subject to annual reassessment; all awards will be finalised on 31 December for the year of academic study (e.g. 31 December 2025 for academic year 2025/26). If you have not been means tested by the SLC and had your eligibility for maintenance support confirmed to us by them before 31 December you will not be eligible for an award. Notifications of entitlement are provisional and may be withdrawn if your circumstances change and you become ineligible for an award.

If you have not received notification of your entitlement to a Chamberlain Award by 1 November and you believe that you should be eligible for an award, please contact the Funding, Graduation and Awards Team. Please wait until 1 November before contacting us as not all notifications will have been sent before this date. You will need to get in touch with us to report your issue before 31 December in order for your case to be considered.   

Contact

Funding, Graduation and Awards
chamberlainaward@contacts.bham.ac.uk