Diverse postgraduate students discussing a project around a table.

United Kingdom Awarded for September entry. Westminster opens scholarship applications after offers are issued, with deadlines typically falling in the spring — check westminster.ac.uk for the current cycle

Westminster Undergraduate Full International Scholarship

This is one of the very few genuinely complete undergraduate scholarships in the United Kingdom open to a Sri Lankan school-leaver. Most British universities offer international undergraduates a tuition discount of a few thousand pounds and leave the rest — the other twelve to fifteen thousand pounds of fees, plus London rent, plus flights — to the family. Westminster's Full International Scholarship covers all of it: full tuition, accommodation, living expenses, and flights to and from London, renewed each year subject to satisfactory academic performance. In rupee terms a three-year London degree funded this way is worth well over LKR 25 million, and it is the difference between a UK undergraduate education being possible and being a fantasy for most Sri Lankan households. The trade-off is that it is fiercely competitive and judged on three criteria together, not one. Academic excellence gets you considered. Financial need is assessed seriously. And the criterion that decides most cases is development potential: Westminster asks you to explain, specifically and in detail, how you will use the knowledge and experience from the degree in the development of your community or country when you return home after graduating. Applicants who write generically about wanting a better life do not win this. Applicants who name a sector, a problem and a plan do. One procedural point that catches people out: you must have accepted an offer of a place at Westminster before you can apply for any of its scholarships, so the admission application comes first and the scholarship application follows.

University of Westminster

University-funded

emoji_events Award Overview

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Tuition

Full fee award, renewed annually

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Living

Accommodation and living expenses covered

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Travel

Flights to and from London included

fact_check Eligibility Criteria

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International Student From a Developing Country

The award is for international students from developing countries. Sri Lanka qualifies. You apply as an overseas fee-paying applicant, and there is no nomination or government involvement.

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You Must Already Hold and Have Accepted an Offer

Westminster requires you to have accepted an offer of a place before you can apply for a scholarship. Plan your timeline backwards from that: UCAS or direct application first, offer, acceptance, then the scholarship form.

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Development Potential Is the Deciding Criterion

You must explain specifically and in detail how you will use the degree in the development of your community or country after returning home. This is where the award is won or lost. Name the sector, the problem and what you intend to do about it in Sri Lanka.

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Demonstrated Financial Need

Scholarships are awarded on academic excellence, development potential and financial need together. Be honest and detailed about household income and what your family could realistically contribute in rupees.

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Renewed Each Year on Performance

The award is renewed annually subject to satisfactory academic performance rather than guaranteed for the full degree. Understand the progression requirements before you accept, because losing the award mid-degree in London would be unrecoverable for most families.

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Full-Time Undergraduate Study Only

This particular scholarship is for full-time undergraduate degrees. Westminster runs separate and much smaller awards at postgraduate level — the International Postgraduate Excellence Award is typically £3,000 to £5,000 towards a Master's, which is a different order of support entirely.

account_tree Application Process

Apply for admission early

Submit your undergraduate application well ahead of the scholarship window. Sri Lankan applicants normally apply with A/L predicted or achieved results, or through a recognised foundation or international qualification.

Accept your offer

You cannot be considered for a Westminster scholarship until you have accepted a place. Accepting an offer does not commit you financially at that stage, but it is the gate to the scholarship application.

Write the development potential statement properly

Treat this as the most important thing you will write. Be concrete: the industry you will return to, the organisation, the gap in Sri Lanka your degree addresses, and evidence you have already engaged with that problem — volunteering, a project, a job, a family business.

Evidence financial need clearly

Provide the financial information Westminster asks for, in full. Vague or inflated figures undermine an otherwise strong application, and the panel is comparing you against applicants from across the developing world.

Await the outcome before making UK commitments

Do not pay a large deposit, book flights or sign an accommodation contract until the scholarship outcome is known. Keep a Sri Lankan or regional alternative live in parallel.

UK Student visa from Colombo

Awardees apply for a UK Student visa. Because the scholarship covers fees and maintenance, the university's scholarship letter satisfies the financial requirement — the single hardest part of the visa for most Sri Lankan undergraduate applicants.

Why Westminster?

The University of Westminster sits in central London, with its main campus on Regent Street and further sites in Marylebone, Fitzrovia and Harrow. Its strengths are in media and communications, architecture and the built environment, computing, business and law, and it has a long institutional history of recruiting internationally — its scholarship programme is unusually generous relative to its ranking precisely because it is a deliberate mission choice rather than a marketing discount. For a Sri Lankan student, a funded place in central London also means access to internships, industry events and a large South Asian community that a campus university in a smaller city cannot match.