Sports scholarships for elite athletes

Applications are now open for 2025 entry

Sports scholarships are available to high level athletes studying or applying to an undergraduate or postgraduate course at Southampton.

What you get varies between the tiers of scholarship available, but you could receive up to £800 towards your sport, additional support, Southampton Sports annual membership and bespoke training programmes.

Deadline to apply: Friday 5 September 2025

What you get with a Sports Scholarship

These scholarships are tailored to your needs, ensuring you succeed both in academia and your sport whilst at the University of Southampton.

There are 3 tiers of scholarships available: Gold, Silver and Bronze.

All tiers

All tiers give you access to:

  • a bespoke strength and conditioning programme
  • performance lifestyle support
  • Southampton Sport annual membership
  • Sports Scholarship sportswear
  • academic flexibility, allowing you to compete throughout the year
  • access to the new performance gym
     

Silver and Gold tiers

With Silver and Gold tier scholarships you'll also get:

  • money towards your training, equipment and competition fees:
    • with Silver tier you get £400
    • with Gold tier you get £800

Eligibility

Gold

To apply for the gold tier scholarship you must:

  • be recognised by your relevant National Governing Body on their Performance/Talent ID pathway
  • have the potential to compete at major World and European Championships
  • be competing at international level

Silver

To apply for the silver tier scholarship you must:

  • be recognised by your relevant National Governing Body on their Performance/Talent ID pathway
  • have the potential to compete at major World and European Championships
  • be competing at national level

Bronze

To apply for the bronze tier scholarship you must:

  • be competing in a Sport England recognised sport
  • currently be competing at county or regional level
  • show the potential to reach national level in the coming year
  • show the potential for long term elite national performance

How to apply

To apply you must complete an application form. In this form you will be asked to include details about:

  1. yourself, including your name, telephone number and non-term time address
  2. the course you are studying or applying to
  3. your main sport, training regime and any achievements or awards from the past 3 years
  4. your training and competition plans for the next 12 months and 3 years
  5. evidence to support your competition level (we do not accept club social media accounts as evidence unless you are linking to a specific results post)
  6. estimated yearly costs and any other funding you receive for your sport
  7. your coach so they can be contacted as a reference or for further supporting information

Applications will close on Friday 5 September 2025.

Apply now

How we award scholarships

University of Southampton Sport Scholarships are awarded on a case-by-case basis at the start of each academic year.

Your level of competition alone does not guarantee selection for a Sports Scholarship and selection for the scholarship is at the discretion of the Performance Sport staff.

We reply to everyone, regardless of whether your application is successful or not. You will receive an email with your outcome after the deadline has passed.

Help and advice

Contact us

If you have any questions regarding a scholarship or eligibility, please email our Performance Sport Coordinator, Tom Forster

Useful links