Knowhere?

Currently, the ‘home-student’ fee for a Library Studies MA at universities like UCL and City is around £4,000, for both part-time and full-time course. The ‘overseas-student’ fees are much more, over £13,000. So funding our MA is certainly something we all have to think about. There are several options: AHRC funding, various independent university awards and grants, working part-time, living off savings and taking out ‘career development’ loans from the bank.

We have heard from past trainees that it is possible to have a part-time job whilst doing a full-time MA. It is of course up to the individual whether they wish to have a job, but it might be possible to work up to 2 days a week whilst doing the course. To get more information about a ‘career development’ loan, contact your bank directly.

Some of us have applied for AHRC funding. This is a long process; you generally do not find out until August or September (ie. just before you start the course) whether or not you have been successful. However, 2009 was the first year of a new AHRC funding application system, whereby you are allocated funding by the university where you will do the MA, and they then support you whilst you fill out an application directly to the AHRC.

This is what the UCL Department of Information Studies says about funding:

“In recent years the amount of funding made available by the Arts & Humanities Research Council for LIS bursaries has been steadily reduced, and competition has been very intense. UCL has been very successful in obtaining awards, but a first-class degree has been virtually essential for success. The introduction of the block grant system in the coming session means that institutions will have more control over the process, but the amount of money is unlikely to increase, so the chance of getting an award remains quite small.
UCL has a small number of scholarships (details on the Graduate School website) but again, these are likely only to be awarded to students of exceptional academic ability. Most students are self-financing, relying on savings or career development loans. Part-time work (in libraries and elsewhere) is fairly readily available in London, and most full-time students can find something that fits in with the course.”