Birkbeck, University of London
There are support schemes for refugees and asylum seekers here — up to £18,000. Below: who each one is for, how to apply, and how it feels here as an adult student.
How it feels here as an adult
More than a third of students are over 30 (48.1%). You certainly will not be the oldest in the room.
HESA · Table 3 — HE student enrolments by HE provider and age group, 2024/25 · Counts every student at the provider, including postgraduate, distance and partner programmes. Source
Can you study alongside work
Of 297 undergraduate programmes, 109 can be studied part-time (36.7%).
A tuition loan for part-time study is available — up to £7,335 a year, but only if the course intensity is at least 25% of a full-time programme. Below that threshold nothing is paid at all. Living costs are prorated to your intensity: at 30% you get roughly 30% of a full-time student's amount — usually not enough for rent. On distance-learning programmes there is no living-cost support at all. With refugee status you qualify from day one, but the 25% rule applies to everyone equally. If you receive Universal Credit, the maintenance loan is deducted from it almost pound for pound. On some programmes the loan cap is lower — £4,890: it depends on whether the university has an approved access plan, so ask about your own programme. Living costs for part-time study are not paid if you are aged 60 or over. And separately: while there is no decision on your asylum claim you cannot work without permission — “combining study with work” is for people who already have the right to work. Ask the university for the exact intensity percentage before you enrol — that number decides whether you get support at all.
Source: gov.uk and SLC, rules for 2026/27 in England. Checked 22 August 2026. How to check your right to student finance
Discover Uni publishes undergraduate programmes only — postgraduate study is not in the database, so “full-time only” here means undergraduate. Part-time does not always mean evening classes: check the timetable with the university. Source: Discover Uni — the official database of UK university courses; downloaded 22 August 2026.
What the university gives
Bonnart Trust Sanctuary Scholarship
up to £18,000Open to applicants who do receive student finance. Gives: full tuition waiver · living costs.
Dates: 2026/27 cycle closed (Birkbeck programme deadline was 31 May 2026, scholarship deadline 15 Jun 2026)
Only if you cannot access student finance. Gives: full tuition waiver · travel costs · equipment and study costs.
Dates: 13 April – 15 May 2026 application window, for October 2026 start
If you are an asylum seeker
While there is no decision on your claim, government student finance is closed to you. That is the rule in England; in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland funding works differently and the decision belongs to the local agency rather than SFE. Universities decide the tuition rate differently: some will treat you as “overseas”, the expensive rate, and some charge asylum seekers the home rate. Ask about this first — the answer changes the sum several times over. The main road here is still one: a scholarship from the university itself, created for people in your position.
Check separately college and ESOL: in England free English classes are normally available after six months of waiting for a decision, and it does not affect a future university application.
If you have refugee status
With recognised refugee status or humanitarian protection you pay the home fee rate and can access student finance from day one: the three-year residence rule does not apply to these statuses (Education (Student Support) Regulations, Schedule 1). That changes the picture: the loan covers tuition, and a scholarship is no longer instead of it but on top — for living costs, housing, a laptop. Schemes marked “only if student finance is not available to you” will normally turn you down, and that is about the scheme's condition, not about you.
- Bonnart Trust Sanctuary Scholarship — up to £18,000
If you only have a school certificate
That is a normal starting point, not a problem. A school certificate from another country is rarely treated as equivalent to British school qualifications, so the way into university runs through a foundation year — a preparatory year inside the university — or through Access to HE at a college.
On most of these routes there are no subject entrance exams: the exceptions are medicine, dentistry and creative courses, where tests or portfolios do appear. The main thing you will have to prove is English: usually IELTS or an equivalent, and sometimes a college result is enough. An interview is not required everywhere, and where it happens it is a conversation about your plans, not a test of knowledge. Step by step — in the route guide.
Ranking position
42 of 100 in the social mobility ranking of 2025.
The ranking covers English universities only, so you cannot use it to compare a Scottish university with an English one. The ranking measures how many students from low-income families a university admits and what happens to them afterwards — employment and pay. It is not a prestige ranking. For someone starting life again this is more useful than prestige rankings: it shows what a university does for students who begin without advantages. 2025 English Social Mobility Index →
What to ask the university
- How will you decide my fee status given my immigration status — home or overseas?
- Does the scholarship still apply if a decision on my claim arrives mid-year?
- Do I need an offer for the programme before applying for the scholarship?
- What English qualifications do you accept besides IELTS?
Who to write to: thecompassproject@bbk.ac.uk
Every fact on this page is checked against the university's own site and official sources; the check date is shown with each scheme. All universities with support schemes · All schemes · Education hub