A State Scholarship was a financial
scholarship
A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need.
Scholarsh ...
award for British university entrants based on
Scholarship Level exam results. Although the award was based on exam performance, the amount received was
means-tested
A means test is a determination of whether an individual or family is eligible for government assistance or welfare, based upon whether the individual or family possesses the means to do without that help.
Canada
In Canada, means tests are use ...
. Most university entrants were funded however by grants from their local education authority. Whilst State Scholarships from the Central Government were greatly sought after for their prestige value they had the same value as local authority grants.
In the 1950s, when the pass mark for
A-level
The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...
examinations and the more demanding
S-level examinations was 40%, the target over three A-levels and two S-levels was about 325/500 for a State Scholarship. Candidates at and above this level were seen by their schools as likely to be competitive also in the Scholarship examinations for university entrance to Oxford and Cambridge.
History
Founded in 1920, they were replaced after the 1962 awards by student grants.
References
Scholarships in the United Kingdom
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