University of Bristol Scholarships for International Students 2026

Most well-known University of Bristol scholarships are set up for full-time study based in the UK (rather than fully online delivery).

Bristol scholarships can cover a wide range of subjects, and many are not restricted to just one department. In the Bristol recipient stories, you can see awards supporting engineering and STEM (for example, Niall Quadros in Aerospace Engineering and Tong Jing Ying in Biochemistry with Molecular Biology and Biotechnology) as well as humanities and social sciences (for example, Souhardya De who said he was “in my final year of the undergraduate programme in History,” plus security studies and education through Nory Ly and Fatima Khan).

In general, you’ll find funding possibilities across medicine and health-related fields, engineering, business and management (including areas like finance, marketing, and HR), STEM (computer science, data science, maths, physics, life sciences), and humanities (history, languages, politics, education, law, and more). For medicine specifically, Bristol’s MBChB accepts international applicants, but it is highly competitive and funding for clinical degrees can be more limited than for many other subjects.

Many Bristol scholarships target international students broadly (often meaning “overseas fee” students), so eligibility can include a large range of nationalities. The Bristol recipient stories alone include scholars from Malaysia, Greece, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, and Pakistan. See Tong Jing Ying, Konstantinos Kariotis, Nory Ly, Hien Mai, Souhardya De, and Fatima Khan.

At the same time, some major awards are nationality- or country-eligibility based: for example, Chevening is restricted to applicants from eligible countries/territories, and many Commonwealth awards focus on specific Commonwealth countries and development-related priorities.

Often it is required, but not always; this depends on your course and your prior education. In the recipient stories, several students used IELTS (for example, Nory Ly listed “IELTS (7.0)” and Hien Mai listed IELTS), while Tong Jing Ying shared she “met English requirement without IELTS.”

So, if you’ve already studied in English (or meet an approved exemption route), you may be able to waive IELTS/TOEFL; otherwise, plan to submit an accepted English test score that meets Bristol’s level for your programme.

There isn’t a single minimum grade that applies to every course; entry requirements are programme-specific, and scholarships typically raise the competitiveness further. Still, the recipient stories show what a strong academic profile can look like: Tong Jing Ying reported “CGPA: 3.97/4.00,” Hien Mai listed “GPA: 3.47/4.00,” and Niall Quadros shared A Level grades “Physics (A*), Chemistry (A*), and Math (A).”

Use these as a practical benchmark: aim for the top end of your grading system (and strong subject-relevant results) if you want to be competitive for both admission and scholarships.

Minimum eligibility usually starts with meeting the course entry requirements and submitting a complete application on time; many scholarship schemes also expect you to be classed as an international (overseas-fee) student and to follow their separate scholarship application steps. After that, the “good academic background” layer tends to mean consistently high grades plus a clear fit with your programme and an evidence-backed story of impact.

The Bristol recipient stories show how that can look in different fields: Konstantinos Kariotis called Think Big “awarded to less than 2% of applicants,” and Niall Quadros noted the award is decided through essays (“reply to 3 short essay-based questions”).

For most Bristol applications, expect to prepare (1) academic transcripts and certificates, (2) a CV/resume (common for postgraduate), (3) a personal statement or statement of purpose, (4) references (often academic and/or professional), (5) proof of English (IELTS/TOEFL or an approved exemption), and (6) passport/ID details; some courses may add portfolios, writing samples, or research proposals.

The scholarship side can add extra writing requirements: Niall Quadros said Think Big is based on “3 short essay-based questions,” and Tong Jing Ying shared, “I also wrote a personal statement,” using it to show her “passion for research.”

It depends on what you’re applying for. Undergraduate applications are normally submitted through UCAS, which charges an application fee for your submission. For postgraduate applications, Bristol may charge an application fee for certain programmes (commonly shown as £60 per application in the University’s fee policy documents), while other programmes may not charge a fee.