Meet the TARGETcourse bursary competition winners

After seven months of applications, optimistic checking of email inboxes, whittling down and short listing, the TARGETcourses bursary competition has finally announced its winners.

The competition, which ran for seven months and closed in May, has recently given six individuals pursuing postgraduate study £2,000 towards their tuition fees. From a variety of degree disciplines, our winners are now telling us what this means to them and how they are putting the bursary to good use.

Here they are:

Stephanie Loria who applied to study an MA in art business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art said “The bursary I received from TARGETcourses has made an immense impact on my ability to pay for school. I now have enough money from my own savings over the past year to comfortably pay for room and board because of the assistance I received with my tuition.”

Lalitha Bhagavatheeswaran is going to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to study for an MSc in public health. She said: “It has been fairly difficult to secure bursaries and grants. Although I am getting a student loan from the Canadian government and a bank loan to complete my studies, these do come with interest payments. I have applied to numerous other scholarship opportunities, but competition has been high. There are many qualified students who also demonstrate financial need from all over the world, who may not even have the opportunity to obtain student loans.”

Thomas Crellen was delighted to have won the TARGETcourses bursary competition and said that living and studying in London for a year cost a lot, but with such a grant the pressure of this was significantly eased. When we asked him about how hard it was to secure funding and whether he had secured any other form of financing for his studies, he told us: “I have not currently received any other sources of funding, and so will make up the majority of the course fees through a bank loan. It seems as though the government has not really given much consideration to how postgraduates will be funded, other than through accumulating more debt.” Thomas goes on to study for an MSc in medical parasitology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Hannah Wright said that “This extremely generous TARGETcourses bursary will make a very significant difference to my ability to fully commit my time and focus to my postgraduate studies. The direct support with tuition fees will also enable a greater ability to make choices and take advantage of any opportunities for learning and development. I believe that these benefits will remain clear even once I have finished the course, as being able to make the most of my postgraduate studies will facilitate the greatest chance to discover and pursue an exciting and rewarding career.” Hannah is going to study an MSc in sustainable agriculture at Lancaster University.

Hannah Smith won a TARGETcourses bursary to study at Swansea University for an MSc in abnormal and clinical psychology. She said: “Winning the target bursary competition has really made a big difference to my plans for my postgraduate course. I would have had to have completed my chosen course part time if I had not won the competition as I would not have been able to afford the tuition fees for one whole year. I am also able to now continue my voluntary work that I have been doing within the NHS alongside my postgraduate course as I have won the bursary competition. It has really changed my academic life and made postgraduate studies a lot less stressful.”

We at TARGETcourses hope that this years’ bursary winners go on to have successful careers and wish them the best in their studies.

If you are looking for postgraduate funding then you will be glad to hear that TARGETcourses will be running another bursary competition this September. For your chance to win a £2,000 bursary to study a UK postgraduate course make sure you keep in touch and visit the site http://targetcourses.co.uk to find out when the new bursary competition opens.

Alternatively you can stay in touch with TARGETcourses through their Facebook and Twitter pages, where you will also receive latest news in the higher education sector.