The Skoll Scholarships provides full funding plus a living stipend to complete an MBA at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School.
The University of Oxford Skoll Scholarships is a competitive scholarship 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 Scholars.
The 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.
Applying for the Skoll Scholarship
To apply for the Skoll Scholarship follow these steps:
- Connect with us to register your interest in the Scholarship and make sure you have up to date with announcements about upcoming deadlines.
- Apply for the Oxford MBA programme directly to Saïd Business School. You’ll need to do this during stages 1,2, or 3 of the MBA admissions process for the 2020-21 academic year. See details below on applying for an MBA admissions fee waiver.
- Upload your answers to the Skoll Scholarship essay questions as part of your MBA application, 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 to ensure you meet the academic requirements sought by the Saïd Business School and determine if you are accepted onto the MBA program or not.
- If you’ve received confirmation that you have been accepted onto the MBA program, keep an eye on your emails as the Skoll Centre will send you a link to the second part of the Scholarship application, which is a Logistics and Reference Form. See the timelines below to know when to expect this email.
- Complete the Logistics and Reference Form. This consists of a series of short questions about you, how you heard about the Scholarship, your references, etc. Please note, your referees will not be contacted unless you get to the final stages of the selection process.
Are you eligible for the Skoll Scholarship?
1. Entrepreneurial action
- You have identified opportunities and taken action in order to make a positive social impact
- You have spent preferably at least 3 years driving change through entrepreneurial approaches. For example, you could have:
- Started or grown a social venture
- OR created and led the expansion of a social impact initiative within an organization
- OR been tackling a specific social/environmental issue, through a core thread that unites your work
2. Creating Impact with a focus on systems change
- You can demonstrate the outcomes and impact of your entrepreneurial action
- Your impact addresses unjust systems and practices in your area of work
3. Personal qualities of a social entrepreneur
- You are a force for positive change. Similarly, you are single-minded and persistent, with a willingness to fail and start again
- You have a bias toward action as well as you have a tendency to explore your environment for opportunities and resources
- And you also have a willingness to take personal, and sometimes financial, risks
- You develop networks and leverage members to pursue mutual goals
- Furthermore, you have apprenticed with the problem* or experienced the problem you are trying to solve
4. The Oxford MBA is critical to your career trajectory
- You can demonstrate why business education is essential in helping to develop your work/impact at this stage
5. Financial need
- You are in a position where the cost of the program is a significant financial burden
- You can demonstrate the need for the Scholarship (for example, due to previous work experiences or personal circumstances)