Case studies : Institutional funding: Victoria Stockley

Victoria Stockley funded an MSc in Finance with a bursary. She graduated from Swansea University in 2009, where she had previously studied for a BSc in Mathematics for Finance. Victoria now works as an underwriter at Zurich Financial Services.

The main reason I chose to pursue postgraduate study was to enhance my employability. I was becoming increasingly worried about my chances of finding a job in the economic climate, particularly with there being record numbers of graduates.

One of the main concerns I had when applying for my Masters was the funding aspect of an extra year at university. I was aware of the financial implications and the fact that I couldn’t get a standard student loan like I did for my undergraduate degree. This led me to look at other avenues and, fortunately, I was successful in obtaining a bursary from Swansea University.

I was awarded £1,500, which paid for just under half of my tuition fees. Bursaries are awarded by the university for academic merit and research potential. Receiving this award was a great help in easing the financial burden of postgraduate study.

Applying for the bursary was quite straightforward. Once I had been offered a place on the course, the university sent me an application form. In this I had to detail why I wanted to carry out a postgraduate qualification, what I wanted to gain from it and details of my academic achievement.

I knew that competition for obtaining a bursary would be tough, with around 300 students chasing 100 awards. The university kept me informed about when I would find out whether I had been successful or not, which helped with my planning.

Because my course was ‘vocational’, I was eligible to take out a professional studies loan with HSBC - something I did to provide extra financial support.

To help boost my funds further, I carried out part-time work including acting as a university ambassador on open days and assisting the university marketing department with ad hoc duties as required.

I am currently on the graduate scheme at Zurich Financial Services working as an underwriter. I get to take part in four, six-month rotations around the department, which is amazing. I think that my postgraduate Masters gave me the edge over other applicants in obtaining this role.

My advice to prospective postgraduates is to make sure that you are choosing to study for the right reasons as, at times, the workload can be heavy and it may be tempting to give up. But, if you really want to, you can get the work done. It’s also important to secure funding beforehand in order to prevent extra worry while you are trying to juggle everything else.