Congratulations on your Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholarship!

We are delighted that you will be joining the Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholar community.

This page provides information which we hope you will find helpful as you plan and prepare for the start of your Scholarship.

If you have questions about any aspect of your Scholarship, please email us at: HardingScholarship@admin.cam.ac.uk. For any finance-specific queries about your Scholarship, please contact HardingFinance@admin.cam.ac.uk.

Opening a UK bank account

Please note that your first maintenance payment cannot be made until you have opened a UK bank account and entered the details of this account onto CamSIS via the self-service portal. Further guidance on how to do this is available on the University’s virtual learning environment. Please note that you will need to login with your University of Cambridge credentials, details of which you will receive closer to the start of your course.

If you are an international student and do not yet have a UK bank account, you must open one when you arrive in the UK to start your studies and then enter your account details on CamSIS as soon as your account is open. You are free to open an account with any bank of your choice. Guidance on this is available on the International Students webpage on opening a bank account.

Please enter the details of your UK bank account on to your CamSIS account via the self-service portal as soon as possible.

Maintenance payments

Your maintenance will be paid in monthly instalments on or by the 1st of the month.

We will contact your College to confirm that you have arrived in Cambridge to begin your course. However, the first stipend payment can be made even if we have not yet received this confirmation.

College bills are often issued on a termly basis, and it is your responsibility to pay this. Since the maintenance is paid monthly, you may wish to speak to your College finance office to request paying College bills on a monthly basis. Colleges will be familiar with this request, and will likely allow you to pay bills monthly, rather than termly.

Your Scholar profile

Scholar profiles help you to become acquainted with each other and showcase your innovative and diverse research to the wider world. We’d be grateful if you could please complete the Scholar profile template and return it to HardingScholarship@admin.cam.ac.uk by Monday 03 August 2026.

If you do not wish to have your details featured on the website, please let us know.

Welcome events

There will be two Harding Scholarship events to welcome you to Cambridge.

The first will be an informal welcome and registration event. At this event, we will share further information about the Scholarship Programme. The date of the initial welcome and registration event is subject to confirmation, but we expect this to take place around the first week of October.

Following this, there will be a more formal welcome event later in October. Details about both events will follow in due course.

Both events will be a key opportunity to meet other members of the Harding Scholar community. We hope to see you there!

Engagement with the donor

The donors and their representatives are eager to hear about Scholars' news and achievements. We encourage you to keep us updated about your achievements as these are shared regularly with our donor.

Once you have started your course, you will be given access to a secure online platform which you can use to share news about your achievements, research, and academic activity. Occasionally, donor representatives may contact you to invite you to discuss your research.

IHS, visa, and travel reimbursement

The HDPSP will cover Scholar costs relating to the standard student visa, Immigration Health Surcharge, and travel to Cambridge from within and from outside the UK.

These costs can be reimbursed by completing the HDPSP IHS Visa Travel reimbursement form. This form also provides further guidance on the reimbursement of these costs.

The usual process is to be reimbursed to your UK bank account once you have entered the details of this account on CamSIS and once we have received confirmation from your College that you have arrived in Cambridge to begin your course. Please feel free to complete the reimbursement form earlier than this if you would prefer.

Please contact the Harding Scholarship Team if you foresee any issues paying for these costs upfront.

Child dependant allowance

The HDPSP offers a child dependant allowance to parent Scholars with children who have accompanied them to Cambridge.

This includes covering costs relating to a visa, Immigration Health Surcharge, and travel to Cambridge for an accompanying child dependant.

Please contact us if you are bringing a dependant to live with you in Cambridge.

How the HDPSP uses your personal information

Details on how the HDPSP uses your personal information is available on the HDPSP website. This information is also included in the Scholar Profile form.

Terms and Conditions

Please take some time to review the Terms and Conditions of your Harding Scholarship. You will have received these already, along with your Scholarship offer letter. We are sharing these again as this document contains a lot of useful information about your Scholarship.