Chamberlain Award for Continuing Students

The value of the Chamberlain Award for students who commenced their studies from September 2020 onwards is £2,000 and is available to those belonging to one of the following groups:

1. If your household income is £25,000 or less
2. If you successfully complete a Pathways to Birmingham programme and your household income is below £60,000
3. If your household income is below £60,000 and you are resident in a Low Progression Neighbourhood (defined as a Polar 4 quintile 1 area) when applying to study at Birmingham, as recorded on your UCAS application (as your home address).

Care Leavers are eligible to receive the Enhanced Chamberlain Award as an alternative to the standard Chamberlain Award. You cannot hold both an Enhanced Chamberlain Award and a standard one. 

In order to remain eligible for a standard Chamberlain Award in continuing years of study you must:

• be a UK-resident student continuing to undertake 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 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)
• be liable for the full standard undergraduate fee, paid to the University of Birmingham
• not be eligible to receive NHS funding
• not be on an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme
• not be transferring from another institution
• have academically progressed onto the next year of study of your course
• have a household income verified by the relevant SLC agency of either:
  • £25,000 or less; or
  • £60,000 or less and successfully complete a Pathways to Birmingham programme or be resident in a Low Progression Neighbourhood (defined as a Polar 4 quintile 1 area) when applying to study at Birmingham as recorded on your UCAS application (as your home address).

If you are a continuing student on the BA Social Work programme and have not been successful in obtaining the Social Work bursary, you may be eligible for the Chamberlain Award. Please contact the Funding, Graduation & Awards team and attach a copy of your correspondence from either the School of Social Policy or the NHS confirming your ineligibility.

The Chamberlain Award will be subject to annual reassessment to determine continued eligibility. Please see our Terms & Conditions for more information. 

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. There is not a separate application form for the award; it is done through your Student Finance application. 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 the Chamberlain 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 in each year of study 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. Please see the notification section below for further details.  

Awards are subject to annual and in-year reassessment; all awards will be finalised on 31 December for the previous year of academic study (e.g. 31 December 2023 for academic year 2023/24). 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. 

We commence approving Chamberlain Awards for continuing students in late October each year. If you are eligible for the award, you should receive notification from the Student Loans Company (SLC) by 1 December. If this has not been received by 1 December and you believe that you may be eligible, please complete our Chamberlain Award Notification Not Received Form so that we can look into this for you. Please wait until 1 December 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 the 31 December in order for your case to be considered.  

Once approved, you will be sent an email from the SLC system confirming that your entitlement notification letter is available to view online. You will need to log into your student finance account to view your letter. Notifications of entitlement are provisional and may be withdrawn if your circumstances change and you become ineligible for an award. 

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.

If you qualify for an award, payment for the academic year will be made in two equal instalments: one in late January and one in early May. Payment will be made directly into the bank account you have nominated for your Maintenance Loan.

The value and criteria of the Chamberlain Award for students who commenced their studies in 2014/15 to 2019/20 is as follows:

Household income	Amount
£0-£25,000	£2,000
£25,001-£36,000	£1,000

Care Leavers are eligible to receive the Enhanced Chamberlain Award as an alternative to the standard Chamberlain Award. You cannot hold both an Enhanced Chamberlain Award and a standard one. 

In order to remain eligible for a standard Chamberlain Award in continuing years of study you must:

• be a UK-resident student continuing to undertake a first undergraduate degree at the University of Birmingham’s UK campus 
• be a normally registered student of the University at 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)
• be liable for the full standard undergraduate fee, paid to the University of Birmingham
• not be eligible to receive NHS funding
• not be on an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme
• not be transferring from another institution
• have a household income of £36,000 or less (as verified by the relevant SLC agency)
• have academically progressed onto the next year of study of your course.

If you are a continuing student on the BA Social Work programme and have not been successful in obtaining the Social Work bursary, you may be eligible for the Chamberlain Award. Please contact the Funding, Graduation & Awards team and attach a copy of your correspondence from either the School of Social Policy or the NHS confirming your ineligibility.

The Chamberlain Award will be subject to annual reassessment to determine continued eligibility. Please see our Terms & Conditions for more information. 

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. There is not a separate application form for the award – it is all done through your Student Finance application. 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 the Chamberlain 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 May in each year of study 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. Please see the notification section, below, for further details.  

Awards are subject to annual and in-year reassessment; all awards will be finalised on 31 May for the previous year of academic study (e.g. 31 May 2024 for academic year 2023/24). If you have not been means tested by the SLC and had your eligibility for maintenance support confirmed to us by them before 31 May you will not be eligible for an award. 

We commence approving Chamberlain Awards for continuing students in late October each year. If you are eligible for the award, you should receive notification from the Student Loans Company (SLC) by 1 December. If this has not been received by 1 December and you believe that you may be eligible, please contact the Funding, Graduation & Awards team. Please wait until 1 December 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 the 31 May in order for your case to be considered.  

Once approved, you will be sent an email from the SLC system confirming that your entitlement notification letter is available to view online. You will need to log into your student finance account to view your letter. Notifications of entitlement are provisional and may be withdrawn if your circumstances change and you become ineligible for an award. 

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.

If you qualify for an award, payment for the academic year will be made in two equal instalments: one in late January and one in early May. Payment will be made directly into the bank account you have nominated for your Maintenance Loan.