Applications will open in November 2025 and close on 15 January 2026 15:00 GMT

This is a competitive process and not all applications will be successful. The successful candidates will be contacted in the first instance by telephone, if you have not been contacted by the end of January 2026 you may assume you have been unsuccessful.

To apply for the GIFT City Academic Excellence Scholarship, you must submit a short video, no more than 2 minutes, and complete the online application form. Only those applicants who meet the criteria for the award as detailed in the terms and conditions will be able to complete the online application.

Application Form

Applications for this Scholarship will open soon. Please check back on this page for further updates.

Your video should be on the following topic:

Why you want to come and study at Queen's University Belfast GIFT City Campus and how you believe your programme of choice will benefit you in your future career aspirations.

Please read the following guidelines carefully:

• Videos should be a piece to camera where you speak directly to the selection committee through the camera.
• The criteria is not for a high-quality video production, you will be judged on the content and the quality of presentation skills only.
• Incorporating creative or highly technical production techniques will not gain additional marks.
• Listen to your video before submitting and make sure that your voice can be heard. Background noise can interfere with recordings e.g. air conditioning or traffic noise. Any videos that cannot clearly be heard or understood due to excessive background noise will not be accepted.
• Any videos that exceed the requested length of 2 minutes will NOT be considered
• Please ensure that your video can be opened and viewed by us using VLC media player. VLC media player supports many video file formats, and we would recommend MP4. If we cannot open your video your submission will not be accepted.
• We would suggest using the WeTransfer* programme to send your video and would ask that you test it to ensure that it can be opened, before sending.to internationalscholarships@qub.ac.uk
• Please ensure that you clearly identify your submission by including your Queen's University Belfast application reference and your full name. This can be included in the message section when sending your video file by WeTransfer
• We will not open any attachments which are submitted with an email which does not clearly identify the applicants full name and application reference. 
• We will accept only one video submission per applicant and this will be the first video received. Any additional submissions will be returned unopened.
• Once your video has been submitted, it is not possible to change it retrospectively
• Make sure you leave sufficient time for us to receive your video. During the busy period before the scholarship deadline a file uploaded to WeTransfer may take several hours to be delivered.
• The deadline is 15:00 GMT Thursday 15 January 2026. Any videos received after this deadline will not be opened.

*WeTransfer offers a free file transfer service for 3 days with a file size limit of 2GB. Your video will be downloaded before the 3 day file expiry date which WeTransfer will confirm and we will send you an acknowledgement. Please be patient and allow us time to download your video before contacting us. 

Additional queries should be directed to internationalscholarships@qub.ac.uk

The University will be closed for the Winter (Christmas) Break Tuesday 23 December to Friday 2 January 2026 (inclusive). Please DO NOT send your video during this period, as your WeTransfer files will be automatically deleted and your submission will not be considered.

1. Students must hold an offer of a full-time place at the Queen’s University Belfast GIFT City Campus for the academic year starting January 2026 on one of the postgraduate taught programmes specified below: 

• MSc Business Analytics
• MSc Financial Analytics
• MSc Finance

2. The offer must be confirmed as the applicant’s FIRM choice by the scholarship deadline.

3. Only the programmes listed under Point 1 are eligible for the GIFT City Academic Excellence Scholarship, all other programmes are excluded from eligibility.

4. Only students with a First Class Bachelor’s Degree (60% and above) are eligible to apply for this scholarship.

5. Students must hold an offer for a place on a full-time postgraduate programme at Queen’s GIFT City campus, starting in January 2026, and have paid the required mandatory deposit of £2000 (Note: If scholarship is offered, this deposit will be refunded upon enrolment).

6. PG Certificate, PG Diploma programmes, Distance Learning programmes, foundation degree programmes and non-standard fee courses, including part-time programmes are also excluded from eligibility

7. To be eligible for consideration applicants must have accepted their offer of a place to study on one of the specified programmes by the scholarship deadline. Applicants who change their original programme choice after the scholarship deadline Thursday 15 January 2026 at 15:00 GMT will not be considered.

8. Prior to commencement of study applicants must have met any academic and language conditions attached to their offer as stated in their offer letter.

9. Students must be classified as full fee-paying students paying the full tuition fee rate in order to be considered for the scholarship.

10. The scholarship will cover 50% of the full cost of tuition fees and is awarded for a maximum of one year.

11. To be eligible for the scholarship applicants must complete the online application form and submit a video as detailed on the application form within the deadline, Thursday 15 January 2026 at 15:00 GMT.

12. Applicants should ensure that videos are submitted in good time. Any videos received after the deadline Thursday15 January 2026 at 15:00 GMT will not be considered.

13. The GIFT City Academic Excellence Scholarship is awarded is for entry to Queen’s University Belfast GIFT City for those starting in January 2026 only and cannot be used for September 2026/27 entry or any other year.

14. If you wish to defer your entry to the University your scholarship will not be transferred.

15. The scholarship cannot be used in lieu of any required deposit and no cash alternative is available.

16. Students must be self-funded i.e. be paying the tuition fees for the course yourself at the standard rate.

17. If you are in receipt of funding (either tuition fees or tuition fees and living costs) from an external sponsorship body such as Government, a charity or a private organisation you will not be eligible for the GIFT City Academic Excellence Scholarship. This excludes students in receipt of educational loans.

18. In the event that a student has received scholarship offers for a number of different programmes at Queen’s University GIFT City, they will only be able to redeem one scholarship award. This will be the scholarship award for the course onto which they enrol in the January 2026 academic year.

19. Students must request authorisation from International Scholarships before making any changes to their programme of study. Where changes are made without authorisation being granted, the scholarship may be withdrawn and students may be required to repay the scholarship in full.

20. Applicants may apply and/or be considered for more than one tuition fee award administered by Queen’s University Belfast GIFT City but if successful would receive only the highest value  award with the lower value award cancelled or allocated to another applicant.

21. The University is unable to consider requests for increased and/or further funding. The amount of scholarship offered is non-negotiable.

22. The University’s decision regarding successful scholars of the programme is final, and no further correspondence shall be entered into.

23. Feedback on submissions cannot be provided.

24. The University reserves the right to vary all or any scholarship awards, discounts and regulations at its sole discretion.