The Robertson Trust Scholarship has been designed to support prospective students who have the drive and potential to go to university, but not necessarily the money to do so. We rely on the schools, colleges, universities and third sector partners we work with to help identify the most eligible candidates based on our criteria below.
We offer up to £4,250 per academic year to students in Scotland who join one of our support packages.
If you are a student interested in learning more, please click the button below to visit the Applicant Information page.
If you are a staff member interested in making a nomination, please read through the information on this webpage.
To apply for any of the support packages, students/pupils must first be nominated by a school, college, university, or voluntary organisation.
We recommend that nominators work closely with their nominees when submitting the nomination form.
The Nomination Form tells us about the nominee and whether they meet our essential criteria, have experienced financial barriers and are within at least one of our priority groups – you can learn more about these below.
The Scholarship Team will review each nomination and invite successful nominees to complete the Application Form for their selected support package.
The Application Form should be completed by the nominee. The information in the application form tells us more about the nominee, their experiences, and how our support could help to reduce any barriers that they expect to face at university.
The Scholarship Team will assess all applications before making offers to a small number of successful applicants.
To find out more about our timelines for each Support Package please look at the ‘Our Support Packages’ section.
Please note: Places for each Support Package are limited, and this is a competitive application process. This means that not everyone who is nominated will be invited to the application stage, and not all those who complete an application will be successful in being offered a place on the Support Package they have applied to.
We assess nominations to each of our Support Packages based on the following categories: Essential Criteria, Indicators of Financial Barriers, and Our Priority Groups.
Nominations to each Support Package must meet the requirements for each consideration or they will be unable to progress to the application stage.
For more information on the Essential Criteria, Indicators of Financial Barriers, and Priority Groups for each Support package, please view the Our Support Packages section below.
We accept nominations from schools (SHEP affiliated), colleges and universities, and selected voluntary organisations.
In 2026, there will be approximately 80 places available for the Young Student Support Package.
Staff from schools and colleges can nominate a maximum of 4 students for this support package.
University staff can nominate up to the number of students that their university has agreed to match fund for the upcoming academic year.
Voluntary organisations can nominate a maximum of 4 students for this support package.
We rely on nominators to help us to identify students/pupils who meet our essential criteria, demonstrate evidence of financial barriers, and belong to one or more of our priority groups.
Based on this information, we will then assess nominations and decide who can successfully progress to the next stage of the application process. This second stage is a full application form completed by the applicant themselves
If nominators are unsure about any of the information we ask for, please check in with your nominee.
Nominations are only considered if they meet the following essential criteria:
Overall, our application process looks for strong evidence of financial barriers.
The following examples of financial circumstances might indicate financial barriers to students accessing university:
We want to prioritise students who face the most significant financial and other barriers to accessing university.
Applications should be able to provide information on the life events that have made staying at school or college difficult and/or may act as barriers to accessing university. This will help us identify what support applicants need to get on at university.
Applicants must belong to one or more of the following groups:
We accept nominations from a small group of partner colleges, universities, and selected voluntary organisations.
In 2026, there will be approximately 20 places available for the Mature Student Support Package.
Staff from a partner college, university, or voluntary organisation can nominate a maximum of 7 students for this support package.
We rely on nominators to help us identify students/pupils who meet our essential criteria, demonstrate evidence of financial barriers, and belong to one or more of our priority groups.
Based on this information, we will then assess nominations and decide who can successfully progress to the next stage of the application process. This second stage is a full application form completed by the applicant themselves.
If nominators are unsure about any of the information we ask for, please check in with your nominee.
Nominations are only considered if they meet the following essential criteria:
We accept nominations through a small group of partner colleges, universities, and selected voluntary organisations.
In 2026, there will be approximately 20 places available for the Student Parent Support Package.
Staff from a partner college, university, or voluntary organisation can nominate a maximum of 7 students for this support package.
We rely on nominators to help us identify students/pupils who meet our essential criteria, demonstrate evidence of financial barriers, and belong to one or more of our priority groups.
Based on this information, we will then assess nominations and decide who can successfully progress to the next stage of the application process. This second stage is a full application form completed by the applicant themselves.
We accept nominations through a small group of partner colleges, universities, and selected voluntary organisations.
In 2026, there will be approximately 40 places available for the Articulation Student Support Package.
Staff from a partner college, university, or voluntary organisation can nominate a maximum of 7 students for this support package.
We rely on nominators to help us identify students/pupils who meet our essential criteria, demonstrate evidence of financial barriers, and belong to one or more of our priority groups.
Based on this information, we will then assess nominations and decide who can successfully progress to the next stage of the application process. This second stage is a full application form completed by the applicant themselves.
We accept nominations from schools (SHEP affiliated), colleges and universities, and selected voluntary organisations.
In 2026, there will be approximately 80 places available for the Young Student Support Package.
Staff from schools and colleges can nominate a maximum of 4 students for this support package.
University staff can nominate up to the number of students that their university has agreed to match fund for the upcoming academic year.
Voluntary organisations can nominate a maximum of 4 students for this support package.
We rely on nominators to help us to identify students/pupils who meet our essential criteria, demonstrate evidence of financial barriers, and belong to one or more of our priority groups.
Based on this information, we will then assess nominations and decide who can successfully progress to the next stage of the application process. This second stage is a full application form completed by the applicant themselves
If nominators are unsure about any of the information we ask for, please check in with your nominee.
Nominations are only considered if they meet the following essential criteria:
Overall, our application process looks for strong evidence of financial barriers.
The following examples of financial circumstances might indicate financial barriers to students accessing university:
We want to prioritise students who face the most significant financial and other barriers to accessing university.
Applications should be able to provide information on the life events that have made staying at school or college difficult and/or may act as barriers to accessing university. This will help us identify what support applicants need to get on at university.
Applicants must belong to one or more of the following groups:
We accept nominations from a small group of partner colleges, universities, and selected voluntary organisations.
In 2026, there will be approximately 20 places available for the Mature Student Support Package.
Staff from a partner college, university, or voluntary organisation can nominate a maximum of 7 students for this support package.
We rely on nominators to help us identify students/pupils who meet our essential criteria, demonstrate evidence of financial barriers, and belong to one or more of our priority groups.
Based on this information, we will then assess nominations and decide who can successfully progress to the next stage of the application process. This second stage is a full application form completed by the applicant themselves.
If nominators are unsure about any of the information we ask for, please check in with your nominee.
Nominations are only considered if they meet the following essential criteria:
We accept nominations through a small group of partner colleges, universities, and selected voluntary organisations.
In 2026, there will be approximately 20 places available for the Student Parent Support Package.
Staff from a partner college, university, or voluntary organisation can nominate a maximum of 7 students for this support package.
We rely on nominators to help us identify students/pupils who meet our essential criteria, demonstrate evidence of financial barriers, and belong to one or more of our priority groups.
Based on this information, we will then assess nominations and decide who can successfully progress to the next stage of the application process. This second stage is a full application form completed by the applicant themselves.
We accept nominations through a small group of partner colleges, universities, and selected voluntary organisations.
In 2026, there will be approximately 40 places available for the Articulation Student Support Package.
Staff from a partner college, university, or voluntary organisation can nominate a maximum of 7 students for this support package.
We rely on nominators to help us identify students/pupils who meet our essential criteria, demonstrate evidence of financial barriers, and belong to one or more of our priority groups.
Based on this information, we will then assess nominations and decide who can successfully progress to the next stage of the application process. This second stage is a full application form completed by the applicant themselves.
Following the nomination stage, a small number of nominees will be invited to complete the Application Form - this should be completed by the nominee in their own words.
In each application, we look at the information each applicant shares against three areas:
If you would like to make a nomination to one of our support packages, please click the 'Nominate Here' button.
You will be taken to our online form where you can select the support package you are nominating to and provide information on the nominee(s).
Please ensure to notify your nominee(s) that you are nominating them to The Robertson Trust Scholarship and direct them to the Applicant Information page.
Please note that only The Robertson Trust Scholarship Team members have access to any information applicants share in deciding about their application. The Scholarship Team includes our external alumni assessors, who may review an anonymised version of an application as part of our assessment process. As former recipients of The Robertson Trust Scholarship, our external assessors bring their lived experience to the assessment process and are provided with training to ensure a rigorous and equitable assessment process for all applicants. For further information about how we handle this information please read our Privacy Statement.
