Are you looking for where to gain scholarship to study in MBA school? Here is the opportunity for you. The Skoll Scholarship is a competitive one for incoming MBA students who pursue entrepreneurial solutions for urgent social and environmental challenges. The Scholarship provides funding and exclusive opportunities to meet with world-renowned entrepreneurs, thought-leaders and investors. Once selected, these students are known as Skoll Skollars.
The Skoll Scholarship provides tuition for entrepreneurs who have set up or have been working in entrepreneurial ventures with a social purpose, and who wish to improve their knowledge of market-oriented practices so they can be more effective in their subsequent social change pursuits.
The Scholarship is given in recognition that the MBA may represent a significant financial burden, particularly for those who have chosen to work in social ventures rather than the commercial or public sectors
Said Business School MBA Scholarship
| Application Deadline | January 4, 2024 |
| Country to study | United Kingdom |
| School to study | Oxford University |
| Type | MBA |
| Sponsor | Saïd Business School |
| Gender | Men and Women |
Benefits of Said Business School MBA Scholarship
- The Skoll Scholarship covers the full costs of tuition and college fees for the MBA programme at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. The Scholarship also covers partial living expenses.
- In addition to financial support, the Scholarship provides access to the Skoll Scholar community, a group of leaders who are positively impacting the world through innovation and systems change, as well as exclusive opportunities to meet with world-renowned entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and investors.
Requirements for Said Business School MBA Scholarship
- All the candidates are required to take the GMAT test for entry to Oxford’s MBA programme.
- Candidates whose first language is not English or who have not studied at an English speaking University are required to take either the TOEFL or IELTS tests.
- Demonstrate evidence of need for financial support.
To be considered, you need to meet the following criteria:
- By the time the candidates apply for the MBA, they must have spent preferably at least 3 years either:
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- starting and growing a social venture;
- OR leading a major expansion of an existing social venture or programme within an organisation;
- OR pursuing positive change as an impact career professional, i.e. someone who has used entrepreneurial approaches to address the same social/environmental issue, with a clear core thread that unites his/her work.
In each of these 3 cases, candidates should be able to describe the outcomes/impact that has been created as a result of their work.
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- Candidates will have used entrepreneurial approaches to identify opportunities, taken action to positively shift the status quo, and produced proven impact that contributes to rectifying unjust systems and practices in their chosen area of work.
- Candidates must demonstrate evidence of personal qualities strongly resonating with entrepreneurial leadership, and illustrate how these have influenced their career path thus far. These qualities include:
- Single-mindedness and persistence in pursuit of a social/environmental benefit goal, including a willingness to face failure and start again;
- A bias towards action rather than reflection on an issue and a willingness to apprentice with a problem* if they are tackling a challenge they didn’t personally live;
- A tendency to explore the environment for opportunities and resources;
- A willingness to take personal, and sometimes financial, risks;
- A propensity to develop networks and draw upon their members to pursue mutual goals.
- Candidates must demonstrate how a business education can contribute to the wider development of their work. They will need to illustrate why a business degree at this stage of their career trajectory can help them amplify their impact.
- Candidates must demonstrate some evidence of their need for the Scholarship. This may be exhibited, for example, in previous work experiences or personal backgrounds which make self-funding the MBA a significant financial burden.
Selection Process
What comes next?
- All Scholarship applicants in the final shortlisting round will be updated whether or not they have been invited to join a first stage interview (online) with the Skoll Scholarship Selection Committee.
- If you are successful after your first interview, you will be invited to a final stage interview (online). Please see below for the steps and timelines of each interview stage; and please be aware you may be invited to further interviews if necessary.
We encourage you to apply to the MBA as early as possible. If you have applied during stage 3, but the decision on your MBA application has been pushed back by the School’s Admissions Team you will need to let us know if you still want to be eligible for the Skoll Scholarship. We will decide on a case by case basis if you are eligible to continue with the Scholarship application process.
Application Deadline
January 4, 2023
How to Apply
To apply for the Skoll Scholarship follow these steps:
- Connect with us to register your interest in the Scholarship and make sure you’re kept up to date with announcements about upcoming deadlines.
- Apply for the Oxford MBA programme directly to Saïd Business School. You need to do this during stages 1, 2 or 3 of the MBA admissions process.
- As part of your MBA application, upload your answers to the Skoll Scholarship essay questions and submit your MBA application! You’ll find the Scholarship essay questions under the “Funding” section of the MBA application. We would advise that you allow yourself about 1-weeks’ time to answer the Skoll Scholarship essay questions.
- The MBA Admissions Team will then assess your application and determine if you are accepted onto the MBA programme or not.
- If you received confirmation that you have been accepted onto the MBA programme, your application will automatically go forward to the Skoll Scholarship Selection Committee.
- Applications for the Scholarship are reviewed after each MBA admissions stage.
- You will receive an update on the status of your Scholarship application and whether your application is going forward to final shortlisting shortly after MBA admission decisions have been made from each stage.
- If you receive confirmation that your Scholarship application is going forward to final shortlisting, keep an eye out for an email from the Skoll Centre with a link to the Logistics and Reference Form. See timelines below to know when to expect this email.
- Once you have received the email, complete the Logistics and Reference Form. This consists of a series of short questions to confirm your contact details (in case you are invited to interview), how you heard about the Scholarship and your referees contact details. Please note, your referees will not be contacted unless you get to the final stages of the selection process.
Please see the timeline below for dates of the selection process.