A historic UK university courtyard with stone buildings.

United Kingdom Run per intake. The Global Excellence Scholarship for September 2026 has closed, with January 2027 and April 2027 starts still open in the same cycle. Undergraduate awards run to the September intake

Leicester International Citizens of Change and Global Excellence Scholarships

Leicester runs one of the more generous and more clearly published international scholarship ladders in the UK, and there are three awards a Sri Lankan applicant should know by name. At undergraduate level the International Citizens of Change Scholarship is the big one: ten awards for the September 2026 intake worth £10,000 a year for up to three years — around LKR 4 million annually, or LKR 12 million across a degree. Alongside it sits an International Merit Scholarship worth £5,000 a year as a tuition fee discount, available at both undergraduate and postgraduate taught level, which is a much broader and less contested award. At postgraduate level the Global Excellence Scholarship offers ten awards of £7,000 off tuition for the 2026-27 cycle. Two details of the Global Excellence terms matter for Sri Lankan applicants and they cut in opposite directions. The academic bar is high — you must hold a qualification equivalent to a UK First Class — but the eligibility explicitly excludes students from India, which removes the largest single competing applicant pool in the South Asian market. A Sri Lankan graduate with a First Class from a state university is competing in a materially smaller field here than they would at most UK universities. Applications are tied to intake: for the Global Excellence award, the September 2026 round has closed while January and April 2027 starts remained open, which is a reminder that Leicester's January and April intakes are real options rather than afterthoughts. All of these are tuition reductions; living costs and the visa maintenance requirement are separate.

University of Leicester

University-funded

emoji_events Award Overview

workspace_premium

Citizens of Change (UG)

£10,000 a year for up to three years — 10 awards

school

Global Excellence (PGT)

£7,000 tuition discount — 10 awards

savings

International Merit

£5,000 a year, undergraduate and postgraduate taught

fact_check Eligibility Criteria

public

International Fee-Paying Applicants

All three awards require you to be classified as an international fee-paying student holding an offer for an eligible programme. Sri Lankan applicants applying from Sri Lanka meet this.

trending_up

First Class Equivalent for Global Excellence

The postgraduate Global Excellence Scholarship requires a qualification equivalent to a UK First Class. A Sri Lankan Second Class Upper will generally not reach it, though it may still qualify for the International Merit Scholarship.

info

Global Excellence Excludes Applicants From India

The terms state that applicants must be classified as international students, excluding students from India. That is unusual and it works in a Sri Lankan applicant's favour by removing the largest competing pool for ten awards.

event

Deadlines Are Tied to Your Start Date

Rounds close per intake. Where a September round has closed, January and April starts may still be open in the same cycle — worth knowing if you have missed the main deadline and would otherwise wait a year.

groups

Ten Awards Each Means Real Competition

The £10,000 and £7,000 awards are made in small numbers. Apply for them, but plan your budget around the broader £5,000 merit scholarship, which is the realistic outcome for most strong applicants.

warning

Tuition Discount Only

None of these covers accommodation or living costs, and the UK Student visa requires you to evidence maintenance funds separately from fees. Leicester's living costs are below London's but must still be budgeted properly.

account_tree Application Process

Apply for admission to an eligible programme

Apply through UCAS for undergraduate study or directly for postgraduate taught programmes. You need an offer in hand before the scholarship applications can be assessed.

Identify which awards you qualify for

Match your classification — First Class or Second Class Upper equivalent — against each award's stated academic requirement, and check the exclusions. Applying for an award you cannot win wastes the effort you should be putting into the one you can.

Submit the scholarship applications by the intake deadline

Each award has its own form and deadline tied to your start date. If the September round has closed, check whether a January or April start is viable for you and whether the award is still open for it.

Write for impact, not for sympathy

The Citizens of Change award is framed around change-making. Describe a specific problem in Sri Lanka you have already engaged with and what a Leicester degree lets you do about it.

Confirm the award in your offer paperwork

Check the annual amount, the number of years it applies for, and any progression conditions. Ask whether it can be combined with any other Leicester discount.

Apply for the UK Student visa

Use the CAS from Leicester, pay the Immigration Health Surcharge, and evidence the maintenance amount for study outside London held for the required period. Biometrics are given in Colombo.

Why Leicester?

Leicester is a research university best known publicly for the discovery of genetic fingerprinting and for space and astrophysics research, with a National Space Centre partnership and strong departments in genetics, criminology, museum studies, engineering and business. The city itself is one of the most ethnically diverse in the United Kingdom, with a very large South Asian population, which means familiar food, temples and mosques, and a community that a Sri Lankan student will not find in most British university towns. Living costs are well below London and the south-east, and the campus is close to the city centre.