Vice Chancellor's Enterprise Scholarship

We are a university committed to training business leaders, collaborating with businesses, and advancing research on entrepreneurial innovation. At Aston, we want all our students to be creative and have ideas that can change the businesses or professions of their future career.  Aligned with Aston’s 2030 Strategy for inclusion, entrepreneurship, and positive change, the Vice Chancellor's Enterprise Scholarship supports our future business leaders, helping them bring impactful ideas to life in their communities and beyond.

Find out more about why entrepreneurs study at Aston.

This award demonstrates our dedication to supporting our entrepreneurial students and new business start-ups and SMEs across the wider West Midlands region.

The winner will receive:

• Full scholarship (100% reduction in tuition fees) for a Master's course beginning in September 2025
• Support from Aston Enterprise, including mentorship, office space and a grant to start a business in Birmingham after they graduate

The two runners-up will both receive a partial scholarship (40% reduction in tuition fees) for a Master's course beginning in September 2025.

Meet the 2024/25 Enterprise Scholarship winners

To apply for the scholarship, you will need to upload a short (1-minute) video of a pitch for your business idea. 

Applicants should submit an idea for a future business that demonstrates:

• Innovation - new and sufficiently different to other businesses
• Viability - the business must be able to be started after you graduate
• Scalability - it must be a business that can start small and grow
• Made in Birmingham - the business must be founded in Birmingham or the West Midlands area
• Sustainability – you will need to demonstrate how your business will have a minimal negative impact on the environment

We will only consider you for our shortlist if you hold an offer to study at Aston. Therefore, you must first apply and receive an offer for a postgraduate course before applying for this scholarship, and you must include your Aston Student ID number on the application form. Once you have received an offer to study an Aston University course, you will be sent a link by email to the application form.

Explore our postgraduate courses and apply for your chosen course before you upload your video below. The Vice Chancellor's Enterprise Scholarship is open to UK, EU and International applicants on all full-time postgraduate courses.

To ensure a fair application process, if your video is longer than 1 minute, we will only consider the first 1 minute of the video.

Please upload your video to YouTube (or an alternative platform such as Bilibili if YouTube is not available in your country) and submit the link where specified in the below application.

We look forward to hearing about your business idea!

Vice Chancellor's Enterprise Scholarship: Final round public social media vote

One winner and two runners-up of the Vice Chancellor's Enterprise Scholarship will be decided via a public social media vote in June 2025. 1-minute videos submitted by each finalist will be shared on Aston University’s website and official social media channels.

One winner will be awarded a full scholarship (100% reduction in tuition fees for a Master's course beginning in September 2025) and start-up support from Aston Enterprise, to help start their business in Birmingham after graduation. The two runners-up will both receive a partial scholarship (40% reduction in tuition fees for a Masters course beginning in September 2025).

Votes will be submitted via secure web-form on an Aston University webpage, whereby members of the public can vote for their preferred business idea. This process is secure and ensures that people can only vote once, by verifying the name and email address of the voter.

Only one vote will be accepted per person, which will be verified by the name and email address provided. Multiple votes from the same person will be disqualified.

No further votes will be permitted after the closing date. No responsibility can be accepted for votes not received for whatever reason.

The promoter reserves the right to cancel or amend the competition and these terms and conditions without notice in the event of a catastrophe, war, civil or military disturbance, act of God or any actual or anticipated breach of any applicable law or regulation or any other event outside of the promoter’s control. Any changes to the competition will be notified to entrants as soon as possible by the promoter.

The prize is as stated and no cash or other alternatives will be offered. The prizes are not transferable.

Winners will be chosen as a result of a popular vote conducted via social media sites as measured, recorded and verified by Aston University.

The winner will be notified by email within 7 days of the closing date. If the winner cannot be contacted or does not claim the prize within 14 days of notification, we reserve the right to withdraw the prize from the winner and pick a replacement winner. 

The winner agrees to the use of his/her name and image in any publicity material, as well as their entry. Any personal data relating to the winner or any other entrants will be used solely in accordance with current UK data protection legislation and will not be disclosed to a third party without the entrant’s prior consent.

Entry into the competition will be deemed as acceptance of these terms and conditions.

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook, Twitter or any other Social Network. You are providing your information to Aston University and not to any other party. The information provided will be used in conjunction with the following Privacy Policy 

Aston University has the right, at its sole discretion and at any time, to change or modify these terms and conditions, such change shall be effective immediately upon posting to this webpage.