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Legal & General Sustainable Leaders Bursary

Background

Through the Legal & General Sustainable Leaders Bursary, Birkbeck is pleased to offer five bursaries of £5,000 to undergraduate and postgraduate students from diverse backgrounds who want to study environment and sustainability courses. These bursaries have been made possible through generous support from Legal & General, one of the UK's leading financial services groups and a major global investor.

Students who are successful in securing a bursary award will have the opportunity to take part in additional engagement and networking opportunities with Legal & General.

Birkbeck’s partnership with Legal & General will support the College to develop a more inclusive environmental and sustainability educational offering. We believe everyone can play a role in building a more sustainable future and we want to develop future leaders from diverse backgrounds with the skills and knowledge to help solve local and global challenges.

Bursary awards

These bursaries are being offered to new full-time and part-time students enrolling on the first year of the following courses: 

Undergraduate

  • BSc Environment and Sustainability 
  • BSc Geography
  • BSc Environmental Geoscience
  • BA Environment, Culture and Communication

Postgraduate

  • MSc Environment and Sustainability
  • MSc/PGCert/PGDip Climate Change
  • LLM Law with Environmental Law, Governance and Policy
  • MSc Sustainable Cities
  • MSc Geography

Legal & General is keen to support a cohort of future leaders who have the skills and capability to mobilise their local communities to play a role in building a more sustainable future. Applicants that can demonstrate leadership qualities and active citizenship in their local communities, their studies, or in the workplace will be prioritised by the academic panel.

Your environmental and sustainability leadership, citizenship and community engagement skills and experience can be evidenced in several ways, for example:

  • Work experience or internships in the environmental and sustainability field
  • Campaigning on environmental and sustainability issues (online and in-person)
  • Producing thought leadership content on environmental and sustainability topics, such as social media posts, blogs, writing news articles etc
  • Completion of leadership training, qualifications or attendance at conferences and events, such as One Young World Summit
  • Volunteering or community projects, i.e., charity trusteeship, Parent Teacher Associations etc
  • Organising local community events, or getting involved in school or college projects where you have driven social impact
  • Field trips in which you were involved in projects, such as conservation activities.

Value of award

These cash bursaries will offer financial support towards living costs for new undergraduate and postgraduate students with a Home or Overseas fee status.

Successful candidates will be awarded a £5,000 cash bursary to help them in their first year of study.

Eligibility criteria

The awards are for:  

  • New undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolling on the first year of one of the eligible programmes listed above for the first time in 2025/26. This includes new Foundation Year students enrolling on year 0 of the BSc Environmental Management with Foundation Year.  
  • Continuing students who have completed a Foundation Year at Birkbeck and are progressing onto year 1 of the BSc Environmental Management with Foundation Year may also apply, but must have passed all 2024/25 modules, and not have received any compensated credits.  
  • Students with Home or Overseas fee status.

Applicants must also meet the following criteria:  

  • Have an annual household income of less than £40,000.

How to apply

  • To apply please complete the online bursary application form.
  • Applications will close at midnight on 28 February 2025. If you have any questions about the bursary please contact , Senior Philanthropy Lead.
  • Please note that you should have made an application to your chosen course before proceeding with this application. Don't worry if you haven't yet received an offer, you can still make your scholarship application while you await a response to your course application.