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Queen's Belfast Vice-Chancellor's International Attainment Scholarship

Queen's University Belfast is a Russell Group university in Northern Ireland, and its scholarship structure gives Sri Lankan applicants two very different things at once. At the top sits the Vice-Chancellor's International Attainment Scholarship: four awards at undergraduate level and four at postgraduate taught level for the 2026/27 year, each a 50 per cent reduction on full tuition fees. At undergraduate level the reduction applies for all years of the programme, up to a maximum of four — so on a four-year degree it is worth half the total fee, which for a Sri Lankan family is transformative rather than cosmetic. Underneath that sits a much broader and much less competitive layer: the International Undergraduate Taught Scholarship, which requires no separate application at all and is awarded automatically on enrolment to offer holders on eligible programmes who meet the published criteria, and a £1,500 tuition discount for new international students progressing with an unconditional offer through the International Study Centre. Two exclusions are worth reading before you build a plan. Queen's Business School postgraduate taught programmes are not considered for the Vice-Chancellor's award at postgraduate level, which rules out the MSc Finance and MSc Management routes that many Sri Lankan graduates target. And a separate £6,000 Business School award is restricted to applicants from Europe and Central Asia, so it is not open to Sri Lankan applicants — a good example of why reading the regional eligibility of each named award matters. You must hold an offer to study a full-time course before you can apply for a scholarship, so admission comes first.

Awards are made for the 2026/27 academic year, with four scholarships available at each of undergraduate and postgraduate taught level. Queen's publishes new terms and conditions each cycle — check qub.ac.uk before applying

Queen's University Belfast

University-funded

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Vice-Chancellor's Award

50% tuition reduction, all years up to four

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Number Available

Four undergraduate and four postgraduate taught awards

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Automatic Tier

International Undergraduate Taught Scholarship, no application

info How this award actually works

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Who awards it

Queen's University Belfast — 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

50% Tuition Reduction for All Years of the Programme — Four Awards Each at Undergraduate and Postgraduate Level. 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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International Fee-Paying Students

You must be paying international tuition fee rates and starting a full-time programme at Queen's in the relevant academic year. Sri Lankan applicants applying from Sri Lanka meet this without qualification.

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You Must Hold an Offer First

Queen's requires you to have an offer to study a full-time course before you can apply for a scholarship. Get the admission application in early so an offer exists inside the scholarship window.

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Exceptional Academic Attainment

With only four awards at each level, the standard is genuinely high. Realistically this means outstanding A/L results or a strong First Class Sri Lankan bachelor's, supported by evidence of achievement beyond grades.

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Queen's Business School PGT Is Excluded

Postgraduate taught programmes in Queen's Business School are not considered for the Vice-Chancellor's award. If you are targeting an MSc in finance, management or accounting, check what funding is actually open on that programme before applying.

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The £6,000 Business School Award Is Region-Restricted

Queen's offers a £6,000 award for outstanding international applicants from Europe and Central Asia on Business School postgraduate taught programmes. Sri Lankan applicants are not eligible for it. Read the regional terms of every named award rather than assuming.

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Eligible Programmes Only

Each scholarship has a published list of eligible programmes and a set of terms and conditions. A programme that is eligible one year may not be the next, so verify against the current document, not a previous cycle's.

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Apply for admission first

Apply through UCAS for undergraduate study or directly for postgraduate taught programmes. Nothing on the scholarship side can start until you hold an offer.

Check the eligible-programme list and terms

Download the current terms and conditions for the award you are targeting and confirm your programme is on the list and not excluded. This is where most wasted applications come from.

Submit the Vice-Chancellor's scholarship application

With four awards available at each level, the application needs to show attainment plus something distinctive — research, leadership, competitions, community contribution in Sri Lanka. Grades alone will not separate you from the field.

Confirm your automatic entitlements

Ask admissions in writing which automatic awards you already qualify for — the International Undergraduate Taught Scholarship or an International Study Centre discount — so you know your baseline fee even if the competitive award goes elsewhere.

Plan the balance and Belfast living costs

Belfast is among the least expensive UK cities for students, with rents well below London, Dublin or Edinburgh. Build the twelve-month budget in pounds and convert at 400 rupees before deciding.

Apply for the UK Student visa

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

Why Queen's Belfast?

Queen's is one of the UK's twenty-four Russell Group research universities, founded in 1845, with particular strength in engineering, pharmacy, food security, law, medicine and computing — its Centre for Secure Information Technologies is one of Europe's larger cybersecurity research groups. For Sri Lankan students the practical case is cost. Belfast has among the lowest living costs of any UK city with a research-intensive university, which frequently makes the total three-year or one-year outlay lower than at a mid-ranked university in the south of England, even before a scholarship. Northern Ireland also has a growing technology and financial-services employer base concentrated in the city centre, within walking distance of the campus.

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Tuition reduction under the Vice-Chancellor's award

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Vice-Chancellor's awards across both levels

Russell Group

Research-intensive university since 1845

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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