International postgraduate students celebrating at a UK graduation ceremony.

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Durham Inspiring Excellence Scholarships

Durham is one of the strongest universities in Britain outside Oxford and Cambridge, consistently in the top ten of UK domestic rankings, and its Inspiring Excellence Scholarships are the main route by which an international student gets the fee down to something a Sri Lankan family can actually plan around. At undergraduate level the awards are worth £15,000 to £30,000 in tuition fee discounts against the original fee for a degree starting in September — between roughly LKR 6 million and LKR 12 million. At taught postgraduate level the scheme splits into two tiers, Inspiring Excellence 5k and Inspiring Excellence 10k, worth £5,000 and £10,000 respectively off a one-year taught MSc, MA, LLM or MDS. Selection is based on your achievements and on your potential to make a positive impact after graduating, so the personal statement does real work here rather than sitting as a formality. Read the eligibility conditions carefully, because three of them exclude a lot of applicants. You must be classed as an overseas student for fee purposes, which Sri Lankan applicants are. You must be self-funded and not already in receipt of any other scholarship or funding — so a student who has won a Chevening or a government sponsorship cannot also take this. And several programmes are excluded outright: at undergraduate level the Theology, Ministry and Mission and Theology and Religion degrees, and at postgraduate level the MBA, MSW and the MA in Theology and Ministry. The honest arithmetic is that even at the top band this is a discount rather than a full scholarship. Durham's international fees and the cost of living in a collegiate university still leave a substantial balance, and the UK student visa requires you to evidence maintenance funds separately.

Run annually for September entry, with the postgraduate scheme requiring you to start in the September named in that year's terms. Confirm current values and excluded programmes on durham.ac.uk

Durham University

University-funded

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Undergraduate

£15,000–£30,000 tuition discount (LKR ~6M–12M)

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Taught Postgraduate

£5,000 or £10,000 tuition discount (LKR ~2M–4M)

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Selection

Achievement plus potential for positive impact

info How this award actually works

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Who awards it

Durham University — not Lanka Scholar. We are not the awarding body and cannot grant, reserve or guarantee this award.

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How you are considered

Through your admission application. Awards like this are usually assessed automatically from the application you already submit — there is typically no separate scholarship form to fill in.

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What it covers

£15,000–£30,000 Off an Undergraduate Degree (LKR ~6M–12M); £5,000 or £10,000 Off a Taught Master's. This is a reduction in tuition, not a full ride. You still fund the remainder, plus living costs and the balance your visa requires you to show.

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Where we come in

We make the admission application strong enough to be competitive — course choice, documents, references and deadlines. The funder makes the decision.

fact_check Eligibility Criteria

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New International Students Only

You must be a new student classed as an overseas student for fee-paying purposes. Sri Lankan applicants applying from Sri Lanka meet this. Continuing students and those already at Durham are not eligible.

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Self-Funded and Not Otherwise Sponsored

You must be self-funded and not already in receipt of another scholarship or funding. If you are pursuing Chevening, a Commonwealth award or an employer sponsorship in parallel, understand that winning one may make you ineligible for this.

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Several Programmes Are Excluded

At undergraduate level the BA in Theology, Ministry and Mission and the BA in Theology and Religion are excluded. At postgraduate level the MBA, MSW programmes and the MA in Theology and Ministry are excluded. Check the current list before building a plan around a specific course.

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Full-Time, In-Person Study

The scheme covers full-time in-person programmes. Postgraduate awards are for one-year taught qualifications — MSc, MA, LLM or MDS. Distance and part-time routes are not covered.

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Potential to Make a Positive Impact

Durham states that selection considers your potential to make a positive impact after your degree, alongside your achievements. Write about what you will do with a Durham degree in a Sri Lankan or wider context, not just about your grades.

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It Is a Discount, Not a Full Scholarship

Even a £30,000 undergraduate award spread across a degree leaves fees and all living costs to find. Durham's collegiate system also carries college accommodation and catering charges. Build the full three-year number in rupees before accepting.

account_tree Application Process

Apply for admission to an eligible programme

Apply through UCAS for undergraduate entry or directly for postgraduate taught programmes, and check your course is not on the excluded list first.

Read the year's application guidance document

Durham publishes a guidance PDF for each cycle setting out values, deadlines and conditions. It is short and it is the authoritative source — aggregator sites routinely quote last year's numbers.

Submit the scholarship application with a strong impact statement

Focus the statement on achievement plus what you will do afterwards. Sri Lankan applicants do well when they connect the specific Durham programme to a concrete plan at home or in their sector.

Confirm the award in your offer paperwork

Check the exact amount, whether it applies across all years of an undergraduate degree, and any progression conditions, in writing before paying a deposit.

Plan fees, college costs and maintenance

Add the remaining tuition, college accommodation and catering, and personal living costs. Durham is cheaper than London but the collegiate charges are real and often overlooked in a first budget.

Apply for the UK Student visa

You will need the CAS from Durham and evidence of the maintenance funds required for a student outside London, held for the required period. A tuition discount reduces the fee element you must evidence but not the maintenance element.

Why Durham?

Durham is a collegiate university in a small cathedral city in the north-east of England, and the collegiate structure is a genuine advantage for an international student: you belong to a college with its own accommodation, dining hall, societies and support staff from day one, which makes arriving alone from Colombo far less isolating than at a large civic university. Academically it is strongest in law, business, physics, chemistry, geography, history and theology, and the Durham University Business School holds triple accreditation. Living costs in the north-east are materially lower than in London or the south-east, which changes the total cost of a UK degree more than most scholarship differences do.

£30,000

Top undergraduate award (LKR ~12M)

£10,000

Collegiate

College membership from day one

Looking for a scholarship because of the cost?

Then start here instead. Scholarships are competitive, usually partial, and decided by someone else — they are the least reliable way to make studying abroad affordable. Your destination and course choice move the number far more, and both are entirely within your control.

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