What is the AS Minority Ethnic Scholarship?

The Aspiring Solicitors Minority Ethnic Scholarship will provide financial support, careers advice and legal work experience to ensure minority ethnic aspiring solicitors have the best possible start to their legal careers.

Recipients of the AS Scholarships are eligible to receive:

  • Provision of clothing, laptops and/or other necessary items
  • Coaching from the AS team
  • Lunch or interaction with a sponsor firm where applicable
  • SQE/Postgraduate funding with a specific provider where applicable

What’s the process for the Autumn scholarship?

Eligible AS members who meet the Autumn scholarship criteria will need to complete an application form before 15 November 2024. Shortlisting will occur in November and the recipient(s) of the Autumn Scholarship will be announced in December 2024.

Eligibility

The Aspiring Solicitors Minority Ethnic Scholarship Autumn 2024 is for minority ethnic aspiring solicitors who meet the following eligibility criteria:

  • Be an Aspiring Solicitors member (from at least one of our underrepresented groups)
  • Not have accepted a training contract with any law firm or legal team
  • Have an interest in pursuing a legal career in the UK or Ireland
  • Be eligible to apply for a vacation scheme in the 2024/25 academic year. This means you will need to be one of: a penultimate and final year Law undergraduate, a final year non-Law undergraduate, a graduate of any degree, a postgraduate student (including GDL/LPC/LLM or other post graduate degrees), a career changer or someone who has completed a degree and is working). Anyone who will be in their first year of a Law degree or first/second year of a non-Law degree in 2024/2025 is not eligible
  • Be resident in the UK or Ireland in the academic year 2024/2025
  • Be physically be present in the UK between September 2024 until February 2025 (to attend interviews and/or vacation schemes in person)
  • Have attended a state–run or state–funded school for most of the time between 11-16
  • Have received or be on target for at least a 2.1 degree classification (please note we take into account mitigating circumstances)

FAQs for the AS Scholarships

What Scholarships are available?

The AS Scholarships programme offers seven scholarships to financially assist exceptionally diverse AS members who meet the requisite eligibility criteria below. Each scholarship is inspired by an AS Alumnus and enables the recipient access to financial support and coaching / mentoring opportunities.

The objective of the AS Scholarship is to support excellent AS members to secure vacation schemes and training contracts with our partner law firms.

The seven scholarship categories are:

  1. The AS Black Heritage Scholarship
  2. The AS Asian Heritage Scholarship
  3. The AS Minority Ethnic Scholarship
  4. The AS Social Mobility Scholarship
  5. The AS Disability and Long Term Health Condition Scholarship
  6. The AS Neurodivergent Scholarship
  7. The AS LGBTQIA+ Scholarship

What do the Scholarships entail?

Recipients of the AS Scholarships are eligible to receive:

  • Provision of clothing, laptops and/or other necessary items
  • Coaching from the AS team
  • Lunch or interaction with a sponsor firm where applicable
  • SQE/Postgraduate funding with a specific provider where applicable

Who is eligible for the Autumn 2024 Scholarship?

Candidates who meet the Autumn scholarship eligibility criteria listed are eligible to apply. Please ensure that you meet the required eligibility criteria before commencing your application. Anyone who does not meet the requisite eligibility criteria will not be considered.

What is the application process?

AS members must submit one online application form via the AS website, selecting the scholarship category most relevant to you. Your application will be reviewed by members of the AS Scholarships Team and may also be reviewed by a board of trustees from the AS Foundation. Please ensure that you submit an application that you are proud of, noting that you may only apply for one scholarship.

Whilst you may only apply for one scholarship, given the multiple diversity strands of many of our members, we may consider you for other scholarships outside of your selected strand where intersectionality exists. If you identify with multiple diversity strands, please ensure to answer the relevant diversity questions in full, as this will be taken into consideration in your application.

What are the main application questions?

  1. Please tell us why you would like to be considered for the AS Scholarship considering, in particular, the impact it would have on your ability to pursue a career in law? (Up to 250 words)
  2. Please outline how you have demonstrated your commitment to pursue a career in law? (Up to 250 words)
  3. What do you feel is your biggest achievement or what are you most proud of and why? (Up to 250 words)
  4. What do you need the financial part of the scholarship for? i.e. a laptop, professional clothing, etc (Up to 100 words)

Mitigating Circumstances

As with all AS programmes and initiatives, we encourage you to provide any relevant extenuating or mitigating circumstances in the free text box provided in your application. This will enable us to understand the full context which may have influenced your academic, personal and/or work experiences. Please only include any relevant mitigating circumstances. If you do not have any mitigating circumstances, please put “NA” in your application form.

Other questions

For any other questions that are not covered by the above, please email the AS Scholarships Team: scholarships@aspiringsolicitors.co.uk

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