Each year Sport Aston awards up to six bursary sums of up to £500 to students at Aston who have attained a level of excellence within their chosen sport. The scholarship aims to assist each student with the continuation of their sporting career while at University and will fund appropriate activities such as sports equipment, physiotherapy or travel to training and/or competitions.
Any individual who will be a full-time student at Aston and who has attained County-level representation or equivalent (U18/U21 or senior status) in their chosen sport can apply for a sports scholarship. The sport must be recognised by the British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) and successful scholars will be expected to represent Aston University in the BUCS competition throughout the academic year they are awarded the prize. Scholarships will only be offered to individuals who have gained admission to the University on the basis of their academic merits.
The scholarships will be awarded by a committee elected by Sport Aston who will assess the merits of each individual applicant. Every applicant must complete an application form which must be returned by the specified closing date. Scholarships will be awarded on an annual basis and must be applied for in successive years.
Application forms will only be available for the months of August and September each academic year with an application deadline date in October of the same year.
Applications Are Closed for the 2023/24 Academic Year
Application deadline: Thursday 5 October 2023
If you are a talented sportsperson competing at a high level and have missed the deadline for applications you can still contact us. Although we won't be able to offer a scholarship we may be able to support you in other ways. Please email sportsenquiries@aston.ac.uk
Meet our Academic Year 2022 - 2023 Sport Aston Scholarship Students
Read About Their Achievements in Sport
- Jaran Singh
Jaran Singh is an excellent, talented sprinter studying Economics at Aston University. He has always played a lot of sports but rediscovered his passion for athletics and running specifically in 2020 during the lock down. His competitive debut was in 2021 at the National Athletics League competition, representing Harrow in the 800m.
Jaran was part of the Aston University running club and now in his second year currently trains at the University of Birmingham track twice a week. At the Sir Doug Ellis Woodcock Sports Centre, he works on strength and conditioning techniques; varying his training style with the season. He still runs for his home club in Harrow and has plans to race in BUCS outdoor and indoor tournaments this academic year, “After realising my potential and willingness to improve, I didn’t want to have a single regret when I grew up about not working hard enough. I decided to dedicate all my efforts to completely maximising my potential.”
Jaran's drive in sport is balanced by his focus on his studies and when asked his favourite thing about studying at Aston University he said, “I love the different types of people you meet at Aston University. You can play football with people from all around the world. The people on my course are very diverse, all with different ways of thinking, it really opens up your mind.”
His best advice to other students interested in athletics is that, “I would say athletics is not typically a sport that people do for fun, people normally do it to compete. It requires a lot of hard work, dedication and discipline. And all I can say is that when it gets hard and when the training gets too much, when you’re hurting – if you can get through those days then you’ll be successful.”
- Calum Upton
Calum Upton is a Biochemistry PhD student and a naturally gifted athlete across a variety of disciplines who began taking part in Triathlons for fun. He ended up finishing 4th in his first ever competition with no prior training and had the quickest run-split of all who competed. He already had a passion for swimming, cross country and cycling, his love of each has helped him go on to achieve so much as a triathlete. “Since being an Aston Sports Scholar I’ve had my first GB representation in the European Spring Triathlon Championships. The scholarship helped give me gym access and pool access which meant I could keep my training up to a high level and the grant went towards funding my place on the race in Munich and this was all covered by the Sports Scholarship.”
Calum trains four days a week including with the Aston Swimming club and typically does 30 miles of running a week and 100 miles of cycling. When asked what his favourite sporting achievement and experience has been so far, he explained that it was the British trials race in 2021, “In terms of performance the race that qualified me for the European Champs was my favourite. It was just the perfect day. I swam my quickest swim, I had my quickest bike and my quickest ever run, quickest transition all in one race. Everything went to plan and I ended up performing really well and qualifying for the Great Britain team, so that was one of my more memorable races.”
His advice to other people who want to take part in triathlons, but feel daunted by the scale of the races, is that regardless of how fit you think you are, you should take the competitivityout of enjoying the race for what it is: a chance to swim, run and cycle while having a great time and feel good. It’s this take a chance attitude that led him to win 1st place during the Campus 5K LoveBrum fun run this March.
“What motivates me to keep achieving is more of a desire to be better than what I was yesterday or what the result from my last was previously. I think the difference between the top level tri-athletes in the GB team and the bottom level is quite vast so you have to set yourself attainable goals. You just need to be better than you were previously without competing against others and slowly find yourself rising up the ranks and that’s how I stay motivated. Just being slightly better than I was in a previous race.
- Omar Mohammad
The key to playing table tennis well is having a sense of poise, focus and tenacity and Omar Mohammad embodies all three qualities. Omar is a 25-year-old Physical Science and Engineering PhD student here at Aston University and the current Table Tennis team captain. He has been playing professionally since age 11 and has since gone on to compete on world stages. “My highest achievement is when I played and competed in the college nationals and became 7th in the UK. I have also played in the British League National B team and I look forward to competing nationally this season.”
Omar trains 3 times a week with a coach and he leads 3 club sessions a week too. Since joining, he has promoted the Aston University club to higher divisions in BUCS rankings, leading them to finish 2nd place in the Men’s Midlands Tier 3 league. “My teammates especially support me to keep achieving, they really believe in me and they welcomed me back into training with the British League team.”
During the pandemic, Omar took a break from Table Tennis after a great series of matches including competitions in Germany in 2019, where his Munich based team placed 1st, won their league trophy and was entered into the national cup competition. This academic year, Omar is getting back into playing Table Tennis professionally and he said he owes this drive to the support Sport Aston has given him, the supportive nature of his supervisors, friends and colleagues at Aston University as a whole.
- David Boakye
David Boakye is a promising Pharmacy student and has been a professional sprinter for the past 6 years; competing on regional, national and international levels. He trains at the University of Birmingham track and at the Alexander Stadium’s High Performance Centre with the Birchfield Harriers Athletics club three days a week, with long hill running sessions on Saturdays.
He also makes time to go to the gym for strength and conditioning training, weight training and mobility work three days a week too. While studying Pharmacy, "I’ve been able to represent Aston University at multiple national championships, in 2020 and twice in 2022 - reaching the semi-final in all three occasions." His highest personal achievement was in February 2022 at the World Championships in Cardiff and he has previously represented Great Britain at the International Catholic Schools Games (FISEC Games) becoming the 2017 World Champion for the 100m.
David engages with just as much passion in Pharmacy lectures, labs and assignments, as he does with Athletics, explaining that his favourite part of studying at Aston are the facilities, "The pharmacy school here at Aston is amazing and one of the best in the country and I feel quite privileged to be studying here."
To other athletics hopefuls David says, "Just go for it. The sky is the limit you never where Athletics could take you and it helps you to have discipline in other areas of your life, consistency in your mindset. It's an all around event. I'm motivated to keep achieving in my sport by my unfulfilled goals, I have a lot of goals to achieve and still a lot of boxes to tick that I haven't done yet. So until I'm done I won't be satisfied."
- Christian Loise Alicuman
Taekwondo is a demanding, focused and disciplined sport which Christian Loise Alicuman has managed to excel in while studying Mechanical Engineering here at Aston University. Loise is a national squad member for the British University Taekwondo League (BUTL), trains at his local Sutton Coldfield Taekwondo club, and is an integral part of the Aston University Taekwondo team – helping members train for the GTUK British Championships and BUCS Taekwondo championships.
Loise has had a passion for Taekwondo since he was a child and currently trains four times a week in Sutton Coldfield, twice a week at Aston and once a month in Nottingham and Manchester for BUTL. His greatest sporting achievement so far is being part of the national squad, especially in combination with being a Sports Scholar. "The Sports Scholarship helped me to compete in last November BUCS competition and I was able to obtain both gold medals in sparring and in patterns.”
Since studying at Aston, Loise’ sporting achievements include a World University Championship silver medal for patterns, Int’l Championships March 2022 bronze and gold, GTUK Competition September 2022 silver and gold in sparring , ITF Competition September 2022 silver and gold in sparring and two gold medals for sparring and patterns at the BUCS Taekwondo Autumn Championships in 2022-23.
His interest in Taekwondo grew while in primary school in the Philippines, and competed at national levels, however when he moved to the UK finding a club was very difficult as it was not a popular sport then. However, being at Aston University gave him an opportunity to take up the sport again. Through joining the university club back in 2018, he's managed to grow again in his passion and skill level in Taekwondo,working towards his dream of achieving a black belt.