Holbeck Scholarship

Open to UK (home) students only.

The scholarships are administered by York, but eligible students could be applying to attend any higher education institution in the UK.

Eligible students must:

• attend school/college in the Yorkshire and Humber region
• be a permanent resident in the UK, classified as Home (UK) in university admissions procedures
• be engaged in the UCAS application process, applying to commence their first year of university study in 2025
• have predicted grades of ABB or better at A-Level or equivalent
• have the drive to attend university and complete a course.

Eligible students must also meet at least two of the following conditions:

• be in receipt of, or entitled to, discretionary payments at school/college, or has a household income below £42,875
• have no experience of higher education in their immediate family (not including siblings)
• have overcome significant difficulties in their personal, social or domestic life that has placed extra demands upon them. This might include being / having been care experienced, estranged from family, experiencing a disability or long-term health condition, or are a refugee.

Application deadline: Monday 16 June 2025, 11.59pm BST

The application process is competitive, with a limited number of scholarships available.

The deadline for supporting applications from parents, carers or guardians; and teachers or coordinators; is 23 June 2025 at 11.59pm (BST).

Completing the form

There are three sections of the application form.

Before you complete the form, you'll need an email address for your parent/carer/legal guardian, and for the member of staff at your school who will complete sections of the form on your behalf.

• Section 1 should be completed by the student.
• Section 2 should be completed by a parent, carer or legal guardian.
• Section 3 should be completed by a member of school or college staff.

Only complete applications will be accepted.

Supporting information from the student

The student’s supporting statement should be no longer than 500 words.

Some of this information might be copied from your UCAS form, but we are particularly interested in:

• why you have applied for the scholarship
• where relevant, further information about any difficulties in your personal, social or domestic life that might have placed extra demands upon you (this may not apply to all students)
• information about your achievements to date (at school or college, and also more generally), and how you have gone about realising these
• information about the university courses that you have applied for, and how you decided on these
• information about your aspirations for your future.

Supporting information from school staff

The staff's supporting statement should be no longer than 300 words.

We would like school staff to consider the information outlined above, and to give us an additional insight into the student’s circumstances, academic potential and eligibility for the scholarship.

If students have noted that they are eligible for discretionary payments at school/college, we would like you to confirm this. We also require you to confirm the student’s predicted grades.

Include your full name, contact telephone number and email in case the selection panel would like to substantiate any of the details on the form.

If you require a hard copy of the application form, please contact us with your name and address details, and we will post one out.

The scholarships are administered by the Excellence Hub for Yorkshire and Humber, but eligible students could be applying to attend any higher education institution, including those outside the region.

We collect information about you in through application forms and documents provided as part of the Holbeck Scholarship application. This data may include:

• your name, address, date of birth and contact details, including email and phone number
• information about universities and courses that you have applied to
• parent/carer/legal guardian email address
• name and address of your school
• school/college member of staff, email address
• information about disability, health, gender identity, ethnicity and racial origin

What is our legal basis for processing your data?

Processing data allows us to manage the scholarship assessment process and confirm your eligibility to be awarded the scholarship, and to respond to and defend against legal claims.

Typically, data will be processed:

• on the grounds of contractual requirement or to take steps to enter into a contract with you, e.g. you are offered a place on a program of study at your University and awarded a Holbeck Scholarship
• because it is necessary for our or a third party’s legitimate interests, e.g. to better understand the effectiveness of our scholarship opportunities.

How do we use your data?

We process your personal data (including special category data) for the following purposes:

• administering and assessing your application for a scholarship and to select successful applicants
• to contact you throughout your studies and during the first year following your graduation to invite you to Scholar events and to share information about relevant networking and Career opportunities
• to find out about your academic progress, including your degree classification, to allow us to better understand the effectiveness of the scholarship programme.

Sharing your data

The University of York, Holbeck Charitable Trust (the donor and trustee) and their nominated third-party consultant will review your application to shortlist and select successful applicants.

For successful applicants, Holbeck Charitable Trust will share limited personal data with their Solicitor to administer payment of the grant.

Storing your data

Data will be held securely and only transferred with appropriate safeguards in place to ensure compliance with data protection law. Application forms will be retained for one academic year after the close of the scholarship and will then be securely deleted.

For successful applicants, limited contact details will, however, be retained for purposes of keeping in touch. Anonymised data may also be retained for all applicants for purposes of analysing the effectiveness of our programme and monitoring patterns in applications.

We will not use the data you provide for marketing purposes and will not pass it on to any third party not involved with the delivery or evaluation of the scholarship. In any evaluation output, you will not be identified.

What rights do you have in relation to your data?

Under the UK GDPR, you have a right of access to your data, a right to rectification, erasure (in certain circumstances), restriction, objection or portability (in certain circumstances). You also have a right to withdraw consent. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact holbeck@york.ac.uk.

If you have any queries about this privacy notice or concerns about how your data is being processed, please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer by email at dataprotection@york.ac.uk.

If you are unhappy with the way in which the University has handled your personal information, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.