Beyond undergraduate opportunities
Kennedy Memorial Trust
This website for UK applicants to Harvard College is mostly geared towards undergraduate study in the USA. But did you know there is also funding available for postgraduate students to study at either Harvard or MIT?
The Kennedy Memorial Trust was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1964 as a living memorial to President Kennedy following his tragic assassination. For the past six decades, the Kennedy Scholarships have supported exceptional British students to pursue postgraduate studies at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kennedy Scholars embody the values President Kennedy championed: intellectual endeavour, leadership, and public service. They carry forward a vision of the future he did not live to see.
See below for further information about Kennedy Scholarships, taken from their website:
The Scholarship
The Kennedy Scholarship is an academic award for study at two of the world’s finest universities – Harvard and MIT. It can be used to fund a wide variety of programmes at MIT and across all the graduate schools within Harvard. It can also fund a Special Studentship for those wanting a general programme of non-degree study.
A Scholarship typically covers the full costs of tuition and health insurance, and a means-tested bursary to cover living costs. Scholars may also apply for an additional grant to pay for vacation travel.
Kennedy Scholarships are awarded annually and the application process opens in August and closes in October, the year prior to your intended start date at Harvard or MIT. Your next opportunity will begin in August 2025.
More than an academic prize
The founders of the Kennedy Trust and its Trustees since have always viewed the Scholarship as more than an academic prize. It is intended to act as a spur to closer trans-Atlantic relations, and few scholars return without travelling across the US and experiencing its wide and varied culture; none return without friendships which last a lifetime.
Scholars use the opportunity to deepen their expertise in their field, but also to explore the diversity within their own field and in new fields altogether. They will hear from leading world figures in every field and are expected to spend their time in the United States enriching their lives more broadly.
Eligibility
Kennedy Scholarships are awarded annually to UK citizens for postgraduate study at Harvard or MIT. Those applying for awards must meet all the following criteria:
- British citizens
- ordinarily resident in the UK
- wholly or mainly educated in the UK prior to university and (will be) graduates of a UK university
Graduate applicants must have commenced their undergraduate studies at a UK university no earlier than 1 September 2016 and have since graduated with their first degree from a UK university. Those studying for a first degree at a UK university and due to graduate in the academic year 2025-2026 are also eligible.
You must apply separately to Harvard and/or MIT for admission to your intended postgraduate programme.