Financial support

You can find the latest information on fees and finance for students applying for undergraduate courses at Cambridge here.

For further advice on student finance and what support is available to you as a home student, please consult the Government's Student Finance webpages.

There is more government information here on student finance and how you will be financially assessed and paid.

Further details

Tuition Fee Loans (Home & International students)

If you receive a loan for tuition fees, the amount will be paid by the Student Loan Company directly to Murray Edwards College in three instalments, at the beginning of each term.

US Loans

Information relating to Federal Direct Loans and Private Loans is on the US Loans website. Further details can also be found under the Consumer information page on the US Loans website.

Contact us

We're here to help. If you have any queries about fees, College charges or arrangements for payment, please contact Student Accounts by calling 01223 762241 or emailing student.accounts@murrayedwards.cam.ac.uk.

We email you an invoice for fees, rent and any fixed College charges at the start of each term, and you have 14 days to pay. We have a policy of including charges within one bill, rather than adding them as extras (as some Colleges do). This means you have no surprises and makes it much easier to budget.

Charges are imposed for late payment of invoices, but we recognise there may be exceptional circumstances - you need to discuss these with your Tutor. We can make then make special arrangements if necessary.

The College requires all new undergraduates and postgraduates to pay £200 'Caution Money', included in their first College bill. We keep this as a deposit in case you don't pay outstanding bills. If it's not needed, we return it when you permanently leave Cambridge on the completion of your studies or for other reasons. 

For more information, please email our Student Accounts team.

Applications are considered in strict confidence by the College's Student Funding Committee.  
Applicants will be expected to have applied for any other funds for which they may be eligible and to have applied for the maximum loans for which they are eligible.

The University Undergraduate Hardship Fund is a centrally-administered fund which can consider a range of student hardship applications. Applicants must be candidates for the BA Degree who have shown proficiency in their studies and who are recommended by their Tutor. The Awarders aim to distribute the funds as fairly as possible to those undergraduates in greatest need and pay particular attention to financial problems caused by unforeseen change of circumstance.

The Cambridge Bursary is a means-tested bursary scheme available for UK and EU students, including clinical veterinary and medical students, who come from a household with an annual income of between £25,000 and £42,620.  These bursaries are now administered by Student Finance. The bursaries are a gift, not a loan, and are calculated for the University by Student Finance.

Eligibility and application: UK students who are eligible for a student loan do not need to apply but will be assessed automatically on the basis of the information submitted to Student Finance.  Please read the information available on the Cambridge Bursary website.

A similar bursary scheme is offered to every student from Scotland who qualifies for a Students Outside Scotland Bursary; to every student from Northern Ireland who qualifies for a Maintenance Grant from the Northern Ireland Assembly; and to every student from Wales who qualifies for a Welsh Government Learning Grant.

The Alborada Trust will support ten recipients of full bursaries on a yearly basis over the course of three years, starting in October 2021.

The Enhanced Bursary Scheme builds and expands on the success of the 2018-19 pilot scheme, which was set up to enhance the Cambridge Bursary Scheme by:

• Extending the reach of financial support to a wider range of students – particularly those students whose household incomes are between £42,620 and £63,000 per year.
• Increasing financial support to students who had already qualified for the Cambridge Bursary Scheme – based on a fairer and smoother sliding scale.

Your eligibility will be calculated from information you submitted to Student Finance. 

The Cambridge Guide for Student Parents offers a range of useful information for student parents, including a section on finance and funding.

The government's guide 'Childcare Grant and other support for student parents in higher education' is available on the Department for Education website and gives detailed information on the Childcare Grant and other financial help available to HE students.

As Murray Edwards College is a participating member of the University Childcare Bursaries scheme, eligible overseas and EU students may apply for the University's Childcare bursary to help with the costs of government-regulated childcare. Funds are available to assist with meeting childcare costs for pre-school age children, and for after-school care costs. The bursary is funded by a mixture of College contributions and Government funding.

The Crane's Charity is the principal medical charity in the University. It exists to provide financial assistance to members of the University who are in residence and need treatment for physical or mental health problems, or for injuries resulting from accidents, provided that the treatment cannot be obtained under the NHS.

Applications to the Crane's Charity are made via a student’s Tutor and should to be supported by adequate medical evidence.

The Rosemary Murray Academic Needs Fund provides graduate and undergraduate students with funding in connection with their studies, such as research expenses for dissertations or projects, or special equipment needs.

The Paula Browne Scholarships are generously funded by Lord Browne of Madingley, and have been awarded in memory of his mother Paula since 2005. Since then, over 22 students have been supported.

The scholarship is awarded annually to one or two students who have impressed us with their exceptional potential and require financial support in order to take up their place.

Students are usually from the EU (not UK), occasionally from overseas or of refugee status.

We are extremely grateful to the John Browne Charitable Trust for enabling the College to assist outstanding students in this way.

• Scholarships are awarded for three years of study, support for a fourth year may be granted with prior agreement.
• Each Scholarship is for £3,000 per academic year – funding is as a credit to the Scholar’s College account.
• Each Paula Browne Scholar is asked to write a report for the John Browne Charitable Trust at the end of each academic year.

The Barbara White Fund provides support for students undertaking academically-related placements over the summer vacation, such as working in a laboratory or assisting in a research project at Cambridge or another university.  Usually made to help with costs of living away from home.

• Awards: £100 per week may be made for a total of up to five weeks.

The Posen Fund provides support – often accommodation costs - for students undertaking academically-related placements over the summer vacation.  Preference will be given to Biological Natural Scientists but applications from students studying other subjects, especially Physical Natural Sciences, may be considered.

• Awards: up to £1000

• Modern and Medieval Languages students may apply for funding for language courses during vacations. Awards will be up to £600 in total to cover the course-fee and travel (but not living expenses). Students are normally eligible for only one such award during the course of their degree. This cannot be used in relation to the year abroad.
• Cambridge University Language Programmes (CULP)
  Any students (undergraduate or postgraduate) wishing to take any of the courses offered through Cambridge University Language Programmes (CULP) may apply for help with the cost. The standard award is 50% of the course fee, paid on production of the end of course certificate.
• AJ Pressland Fund Travel Bursaries
  Administered by the Language Centre, the AJ Pressland Fund offers bursaries of up to £1,000 to support language study abroad during the Long Vacation for students within the Schools of Biological Science, Clinical Medicine, Physical Science and Technology.

This provides small grants to postgraduate students to assist with research or fieldwork expenses, such as travel costs to present papers at seminars or conferences, or to consult archives. Applications will also be considered for exceptional costs in the production of a thesis, e.g. the provision of photographic materials. Grants from the Postgraduate Research and Fieldwork Fund can be used to supplement funds available from other sources such as departments and faculties but will not be awarded in addition to an Academic Needs award for the same project. 

• Award: up to £300 over the period of a standard masters; up to £900 (maximum £300 per year) over the whole period of your PhD course.

These funds are available one time only for supporting travel for Murray Edwards College's veterinary and medical students. They are mainly used to support the expenses incurred by clinical students in connection with their electives or equivalent activities. The sum of money available for distribution each year is not large enough to underwrite completely the projects submitted. The Awarding Committee tries to make grants which can be regarded as "pump priming" rather than total funding.

Allocation of the awards, as with virtually all grants for professional development or research, is on the basis of competition; the sum awarded reflects not only the total costs that the applicant envisages incurring but also the quality of the presentation. It is hoped that an application to the Clinical Elective Funds will form the basis for further applications to other bodies.

If you are referred for a diagnostic assessment for a Specific Learning Difficulty by the DRC [Disability Resource Centre], the College will pay for 50% of the cost of the assessment.

Rosemary Murray Scholarships

Rosemary Murray Scholarships of £400 are awarded each year to those undergraduates who perform outstandingly well (a First Class result in any part of the Tripos, including Part III). It is also offered to those doing one-year LLM, MCL or MAST courses who obtain marks equivalent to a First.

Robin Hammond Prize in English

One award of £250 is made annually to the English undergraduate who obtains the highest mark in an exam paper or dissertation for English Literature Part I, Paper 4 (Renaissance 1500-1700).  Dr Robin Hammond was appointed College Lecturer in English at New Hall in March 1954 and, along with Dame Rosemary Murray, was one of the two senior members at New Hall at its foundation. Dr Hammond directed studies in the Arts subjects, and she and Dame Rosemary worked as a team to manage the College and its students.  After New Hall moved to Huntingdon Road, Dr Hammond was Tutor and then Senior Tutor before retiring in 1974. Before her death, Dr Hammond was delighted that alumnae wished to establish this prize in her honour.

Dorothy Gabe Scholarship

One award of £400 is made annually to the student with the best first from the MML finalists.  (The recipient of this award may not also receive a Rosemary Murray Scholarship.)

These prestigious awards are for current Engineering students who meet the following criteria:

• Second or third year students who have achieved a 1st or high 2:1 at the end of the previous year
• Demonstrable interest in mechanical/electronic/aerospace/aerothermal engineering
• Passionate about engineering

The Award is £2,500 with a guaranteed interview for a Dyson internship (but award holders are not required to apply for the internship). Recipients of this scholarship will be required to write a report  for the donors. 

The College is delighted and impressed by the number of Murray Edwards students who are playing sport at Blues level (representing the University in competition against Oxford University). We are very keen to offer an easily understandable way of rewarding students for their Blues achievements that can be applied across all cases.  

In any academic year:

• Any student who is in Blues training (but has not received a Blue as yet) will be eligible to apply for £75 towards their training costs.  
• Any student who has achieved a Half Blue will receive £150, and any student who receives a Full Blue will receive £200.

Students in receipt of a Blue will be eligible to apply for one award annually, irrespective of the number of sports they play. Any student who receives money for Blues training, and subsequently receives a half or full Blue, can apply for the remainder of the appropriate award (i.e. a further £75 for a Half Blue and £125 for a Full Blue); any student who receives money for achieving a half Blue and who then goes on to achieve a Full Blue, can apply for a further £50 to bring their total award up to the Full Blue award of £200: the application for the top-up to the award must be made in the same academic year as the initial award.  

The Hawks Charitable Trust provides grants to current Cambridge University students whose sporting activities are inhibited by financial constraints. For further information and an application form, see the Hawks Club website.

Any student who plays a musical instrument may apply for College music awards. Murray Edwards College runs an annual Music Awards competition. It's open to all undergraduates and postgraduates in any subject, and all instruments and styles of music are very welcome.

Up to five scholarships (up to a maximum combined value of £800) will be awarded each year, to be spent on instrumental/vocal tuition. The applicants will be judged on a short recital performance and a short informal interview at which we discuss their music-making and proposed contribution to the College’s musical life.

Any student who is part of the Inter Alios Choir may apply for a Choral Scholarship of £100. 

Rosemary Murray Travel Awards are made each year to undergraduate students (postgraduate students are not eligible) for travel which may be for academic or other purposes. The value of awards may be up to £200.

Final year students are eligible for these awards but must intend to use the award before October. Year abroad students are eligible to apply. The funds must not be used to fund the year abroad itself but may be used to travel elsewhere in Europe after the end of the year abroad. No student will receive a total of more than £500 in Rosemary Murray Travel Awards during their degree.

All recipients are expected to submit a report on their travels upon their return.
 

Rhiannon McKinnon, née Evans (NH 1997-2000 History), has set up a travel fund in her father’s name. Rhiannon lives in New Zealand and has donated funds for students who wish to travel to New Zealand for academic purposes.  The donor is happy for the award to be made to a student of any discipline. She has met a number of students from the UK who are in New Zealand on electives. She would hope to meet with the student during their time in the country.

Applications will be assessed on the academic value of the trip to New Zealand. If there are two applicants who both have excellent plans and good reasons for wanting to go to New Zealand, then the award may be split in that year. There is a maximum award of £1,000 per student.

The Panton Trust is a small registered charity, which provides grants for projects concerned with any of the following:

• any animal or animals
• wildlife in any part of the world
• the environment of the UK or any part of the UK

The Trust provides sponsorship for student projects (graduate or undergraduate), with the support of their College. These should not be conventional laboratory research projects; they are normally expedition projects with serious animal/wildlife objectives. The projects may be in any relevant field including (but not limited to) geography, botany, veterinary medicine, zoology or biology but in all cases, they will have serious objectives.

The Gladstone Memorial Trust Travel awards are intended to give students in their first or second undergraduate years at Oxford or Cambridge an opportunity to travel abroad and extend their knowledge of foreign countries. Final year students are not eligible but students in the third year of a four year course are allowed to apply. The awards are not intended to support scientific expeditions or projects connected with academic courses of research.