Carnegie Education Fund

Carnegie-Morgan Scholarship

The Carnegie-Morgan Scholarship is a new initiative developed in partnership with Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) which improves access to nature skills training by helping students meet the costs of postgraduate study.

Open to those looking to undertake the MSc in Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants jointly delivered by RBGE and the University of Edinburgh, it covers tuition fees and a small contribution to help with living-costs while you study..

As with many STEM subjects, postgraduate study in plant science often comes with a relatively high price tag due to necessities such as specialist facilities, teaching and equipment.
Our scholarship helps to address this by removing the financial hurdle that would otherwise act as a barrier for Scottish graduates looking to advance their studies in this area.

This Scholarship was made possible thanks to a generous legacy from Dr Keith Morgan, given in 2017.

How does it work?

Carnegie Masters Grants provide additional support to students in receipt of a postgraduate loan to cover the cost of courses with high tuition fees.

As an example, you might wish to undertake a MSc in Computational Geoscience, where the fee for study is £12,960.

After applying for, and receiving, the maximum SAAS postgraduate loan of £7,000, they could then apply for a Carnegie Masters Grant. Their successful application would then meet the difference of £5,960 and would be paid direct to their university

Before you apply

The Carnegie-Morgan Scholarship only applies to eligible students undertaking the MSc in Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants jointly delivered by RBGE and the University of Edinburgh. To be eligible you must:
Have been accepted onto the course to study full-time
Live in a low-income household
Be ordinarily resident in Scotland
Not have already obtained a postgraduate degree
For the full list of criteria, please see our application handbook here. If you don’t meet all of the criteria you are likely not eligible. Should you have any questions, please write to

How to apply

To apply for the Carnegie-Morgan Scholarship, you must first have been accepted on, the MSc in Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants.
During your application, you should indicate that you wish to be considered for the Scholarship. You will then be directed to us and we will provide you with a Scholarship application form.

We will then confirm your eligibility, using the evidence you have provided, against the criteria. Following this assessment, we will recommend candidates to be awarded the Scholarship.
For the best chance of success, please read our Application Handbook.

If your application is successful, your ou tuition fees will be paid directly to the university. Your living-cost bursary will be paid directly to you by CEF in three equal payments. Should you have any questions at this point, or about the process, please write to