Brian Harris Scholarship 2027

About the project

Two scholarships are available to new full or part-time postgraduate students who have studied a Humanities degree at undergraduate level and are in financial need.

Am I eligible?

• Home fee status
• Studied/studying a Humanities undergraduate degree
• Offer to study one of the following degrees: MA History MA History: Hellenic Studies MA History: Gender History MA History: Crusader Studies MA Public History MA Ancient History MA Classical Art and Archaeology MA Classics MA English Literature MA Creative Writing MA English Literature: Victorian Literature, Art and Culture MA English Literature: Medieval Studies MA Holocaust Studies MSc Accounting and Financial Management MSc AI for Business MSc Digital Marketing MSc Human Resource Management MSc International Business Management MSc Marketing
• MA History
• MA History: Hellenic Studies
• MA History: Gender History
• MA History: Crusader Studies
• MA Public History
• MA Ancient History
• MA Classical Art and Archaeology
• MA Classics
• MA English Literature
• MA Creative Writing
• MA English Literature: Victorian Literature, Art and Culture
• MA English Literature: Medieval Studies
• MA Holocaust Studies
• MSc Accounting and Financial Management
• MSc AI for Business
• MSc Digital Marketing
• MSc Human Resource Management
• MSc International Business Management
• MSc Marketing
• Achieved, or expected to achieve, at least a 2:1 degree or equivalent (preference given to those with, or expected to achieve, a First Class Honours Degree)
• Demonstration of financial need

How do I apply?

You’ll need to submit your application, including a scholarship statement, on our applicant portal.

Read the guidelines below to find out everything you’ll need to submit your application.

The deadline to apply for this scholarship is 30 May, 2027. We’ll let you know whether you’ve been successful from 21 June 2027.

About the donor

The scholarship was established by entrepreneur Brian Harris to provide an opportunity for a student from a low-income background to study a Masters degree.

Sadly, Brian passed away in October 2022 but his memory will live on through his generous scholarships.

Brian was the first in his family to go to university. He was inspired to study history by his school teachers and was initially attracted to Royal Holloway’s beautiful Founder’s Building and its rural surroundings. After his undergraduate studies he decided to stay on to study a Masters, to boost his CV and to help him stand out from the crowd in the employment market.

Brian said: “Royal Holloway made a huge difference to my life. I was from a poor background. My father was a manual worker. I am sure that without my years of study at Royal Holloway I would never have been able to achieve so much in my life.

"My subsequent business successes have given me the means, and some might say the privilege, to help others. I am very keen to try and level the playing field for the more disadvantaged students, as I studied in an era of free higher education and am deeply conscious that, had the present day funding structure existed then, I doubt whether I would ever have studied for a degree, let alone a Masters.”

Read Brian's full interview in the drop down below.

Application guidelines

You’ll need to provide a supporting statement outlining why you should receive the scholarship.

Your answer should include answers to the following:

The following must also be provided:

Your application will be scored based on how effectively your statement answers the above points.

Statements are limited to 6,000 characters (including spaces).

Find out more about how to complete your scholarship application .

• Reflecting on your academic and personal journey so far, what is the single greatest challenge or barrier you have had to overcome, and how did navigating this experience shape your achievements and future goals?
• If awarded this scholarship, how specifically will it transform your university experience, and how do you plan to use the time and financial relief it provides to pursue excellence in your field or community?
• How do your future aspirations align with the values of this specific scholarship, and how do you intend to use your university education to create positive change for others in the future?
• Evidence of the financial support you received at undergraduate level and the basis on which this was received and why. The sources this could be from are: Student Finance England Student Awards Agency Scotland Student Finance Wales Student Finance Northern Ireland University funded bursary, where this has been awarded on the basis of financial need.
• Student Finance England
• Student Awards Agency Scotland
• Student Finance Wales
• Student Finance Northern Ireland
• University funded bursary, where this has been awarded on the basis of financial need.

Terms and conditions

Read our full terms and conditions.

For details of all our individual scholarships read our terms and conditions appendix.

• You may not hold any other Royal Holloway tuition fee scholarship or discount alongside this scholarship. For example, this includes the Royal Holloway and University of London Alumni discounts
• If you are eligible for, or win (in the case of competitive awards), more than one scholarship, you will be awarded the scholarship or discount with the highest value.

Contact us

If you have any queries please contact rhps@rhul.ac.uk

Interview with Brian Harris

Entrepreneur and Royal Holloway alumnus Brian Harris provides a scholarship for students from lower-income backgrounds to pursue a Masters degree in History. He spoke to us about how much his university meant to him and why he decided to help future students.

I was the first in my family ever to go to University at a time when only about 3% of 18 year olds did so. I had no parental guidance on how to make a choice so I was primarily influenced by the beautiful Founder’s Building and the exquisite environment, as it was then a lot smaller with very rural grounds filled with orchards and flowering shrubs. It was the only one of my five choices to offer me an interview, others simply made an offer based on expected grades. I enjoyed the interview despite a few pratfalls on my part. Asked which book I was reading, and it remains seared in my memory to this day (it was a biography of the French king Henri IV), I couldn’t remember the name of the author!

A lot. Mainly in terms of size and to an extent in terms of its demographic.

When I came to Royal Holloway in 1973, it had not long ceased to be a female only college and still had a heavy preponderance of young women, who had come to Royal Holloway following the advice of their own teachers who had studied there. Others had come as they had failed to get into Oxbridge and felt that the cloistral environment carried echoes of their first choices. It was only about 1,200 strong in terms of student numbers of which perhaps a third took an active part in college life which meant that it felt like a large family. It would be wrong to say you knew everyone by name, but you could recognise most as fellow students.

The international component was not as high as it is presently but it was still considerable. There were for example many students from Iran, Thailand and Greece. Egham was in those days still very much an outlier in terms of London University college locations. For example neither the M3 nor the M25 had been built. It felt, and in truth was, rather remote with only an irregular train service into London, so life was rather inward facing and focused on the campus.

The student accommodation is truly luxurious now compared to then. The old halls of residence, Cameron, Athlone and Williamson (which were not so old in fact having been built in the late 1960s) seemed to have been designed by someone who had a penchant for the architecture of a WW2 Bunker. Bare block walls everywhere and a simple wash hand basin in each room, with shared showers and toilets.

I had always wanted to study history. It was my favourite subject at school where I was fortunate in having excellent history teachers who encouraged pupils to speak out and ask questions. I have very catholic tastes in history but I know the early modern period best.

It had become apparent to me at college, even with the far lower student numbers than in tertiary education, that without contacts or guidance I would struggle to stand out from among the many who also had bachelor’s degrees. I thought, and this is as true now as it was then, that an employer faced with a large pile of CVs, would first filter on the basis of the highest level of qualifications. I was also undecided as to whether I wished to go on with academic study towards a PhD or find a job in business or the civil service, so it gave me some useful space in which to decide while gaining a higher qualification

Too many to mention or pick one out, but I have a keen memory of my first day at college, feeling strongly that this was the first day of my truly adult life. My time at Royal Holloway was overall the happiest in my life

I see myself as part of an ongoing continuum and it has always seemed obvious that you need to understand how I/we have come to where we are and how we understand the direction of travel. Particularly at present.

An ability to quickly marshal an argument and present it cogently and confidently, coupled with (usually) a deeper insight in current affairs This is a big plus in a world where we have every growing technological competence but struggle to explain it

Royal Holloway made a huge difference to my life. I was from a poor background. My father was a manual worker and without my four years of study at Royal Holloway I am sure I would not have succeeded as much in life as I have. I studied in an era of free tertiary education (albeit for far fewer numbers) and I am deeply conscious that had the present day funding formula existed then, I doubt whether I would ever have studied for a degree, let alone a Masters, and I am keen to try, at least in a small way, to level the playing field for the more disadvantaged student

Get to know what the eligibility criteria are first and if it fits you or your circumstances. Think clearly about how to make the application that will show that you have closely read and understood these and don’t be bashful Lucidly make the point why you need a scholarship and how will it help you. If you don’t blow your own your own trumpet as to your successes and relevance no one else will!

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