Sam Pegram Scholarship 2025/26

The Sam Pegram Scholarship provides one international student with full funding to pursue an LLM in International Human Rights Law and Practice offered by the York Law School and the Centre for Applied Human Rights.

• Funding: Full tuition fee waiver, travel and visa costs, accommodation and living costs, and overseas placement. 
• Academic year: 2025/26
• Open to: International (including EU) students
• Qualification level: Postgraduate taught
• Number available: 1

This is a full scholarship that covers tuition fees, accommodation, travel and visa costs, including an overseas placement to South Africa, and a monthly living stipend for one individual student.

The scholarship is generously provided by The Sam Pegram Humanitarian Foundation in memory of Sam Pegram, a caring, kind and talented young man who tragically died in the Ethiopian Airlines' Boeing 737 Max crash, in 2019, en route to Nairobi.

After spending two years volunteering and working for humanitarian NGOs in Jordan, Sam came to the University of York to study the LLM in International Human Rights Law and Practice. After graduating, he secured a role as a research policy assistant for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Geneva, where he was working when he died.

Sam was a wonderful presence in the classroom. He was committed, thoughtful and reflexive in his fieldwork. He was deeply committed to humanitarianism, the rights of people on the move, and social justice in a broad sense. He remains deeply missed by his friends and family here at York, in Lancashire where he was from, and around the world.

Through this scholarship, others will have the opportunity to study on this course and make a positive difference for the rights of people on the move and human rights more generally.

Eligibility 

Open to International (including EU) students only.

In order to be eligible, you must also have an offer for a place on this course: LLM International Human Rights Law and Practice

To apply, you must also:

• have applied to study on the LLM in International Human Rights Law and Practice at the University of York on a full-time basis
• demonstrate that you have limited financial resources and that you need the scholarship to pursue your postgraduate studies
• demonstrate a passion for human rights, either through your previous academic studies, professional work, or volunteer activities
• have a demonstrable specific interest in migration issues, and that you wish to pursue or consolidate a career working on issues affecting people on the move, including generally and in relation to their social exclusion
• have some lived experience of human rights challenges or migration issues.

How to apply 

Apply online before the deadline on Saturday, 31st May 2025, 11.59pm BST

How we allocate 

Once the deadline has passed, an academic panel will review all the applications with a view to compiling a shortlist. The shortlisted applications will be further reviewed by a panel that includes both academics and trustees of the Sam Pegram Humanitarian Foundation. Shortlisted applicants may be called for an online interview (at the discretion of the panel).

The final decision on the award of the scholarship will be made by 16 June 2025. We will contact all applicants about the outcome of their application on 16 June. However, we will only be able to provide shortlisted applicants with brief feedback on their application.

Terms and Conditions 

The scholarships are for one year of full-time study and for students beginning their study at the start of the academic year 2025/26.

Students may apply for the Sam Pegram Scholarship even if they have applied for other partial or full scholarships and are awaiting their outcomes or have not been successful. However, should they be awarded another full scholarship (covering both tuition fees and living expenses), they must inform us immediately, as they will then be ineligible for the Sam Pegram Scholarship.

The award includes:

• a full tuition fee waiver, 
• accommodation in York's postgraduate halls of residence*, 
• visa and travel costs, 
• a monthly living stipend for one year,
• a lump sum to cover the costs associated with conducting overseas fieldwork as part of the Human Rights Placement module.

* The funding covers band three accommodation in York’s postgraduate halls of residence (shared facilities, mixed gender). Should the scholarship recipient prefer alternative university accommodation, this may be arranged; however, the recipient will have to cover any cost difference in excess. 

Privacy Notices 

The following Privacy Notice tells you what to expect when you apply for a scholarship from the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York.

For details of how your personal information is used in other ways, please see additional University Privacy Notices.