Hornby Scholarship 2027/28 at Exeter: Who Qualifies, What It Covers and How to Apply

Applications for the A.S. Hornby Educational Trust Scholarship (the Hornby Scholarship) close on Sunday 22 November 2026. The award funds experienced English language teaching professionals to take the one-year Master of Education (MEd) in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom (UK), starting in September 2027. No closing time or time zone is published, so Scholarship Tally’s view is to use Friday 20 November 2026 as your personal submission deadline.

This guide turns the official eligibility rules, the nationality and residence wording conflict, the published funding details, the form-to-MEd sequence and the supporting-statement prompts into checks you can use before you invest your evenings in the application. It does not replace the award page or the 31-question applicant guidance.

By Derrick Ochieng for Scholarship Tally. Checked on 7 October 2026 against the University of Exeter award page, the Applicant Guidance for the 2027-28 Hornby Scholarship (PDF), the School of Education Hornby page, the A.S. Hornby Educational Trust scholarships page, the MEd TESOL course page, the English language Profile B1 page and the country list the award page links to. Where those pages differ, we follow the Exeter award page and the 2027-28 guidance and say so. Scholarship Tally is not part of the University of Exeter or the Trust, and we do not take applications.

Editorial note: A human editor used artificial intelligence (AI) to help organise the official source material into an initial draft, then checked every date, rule and figure against those sources. Advice that is our own, rather than an official rule, is labelled as Scholarship Tally’s view.

Hornby Scholarship 2027/28 at a glance

What the Hornby Scholarship is, and what this guide adds

The A.S. Hornby Educational Trust says its current master’s programme is a partnership with the University of Exeter for the MEd TESOL. The School of Education describes the scholarships as offered annually.

The purpose is stated plainly. The Trust wants scholars, once they finish the UK master’s, to strengthen English language teaching (ELT) in their home countries. On return home it offers access to its alumni network, possible funding through alumni project grants for in-country capacity-building activities, and support for in-country activities such as seminars and workshops. It says scholars are selected for their ability and commitment to deliver new initiatives at home. If you do not plan to return and work on teacher development in your own context, the rest of this guide matters less.

A 60-second eligibility check

The guidance says the form is configured so that ineligible applicants cannot progress past certain questions. Scholarship Tally’s view: treat each check below as pass or stop, because a strong statement cannot fix a failed rule.

Country: live and work in a DAC-listed country

The Exeter award page says you must be a resident of, and work in, a country listed on the OECD DAC list as Least Developed, Low Income, Lower Middle Income or Upper Middle Income. The award page links to the DAC list for reporting on 2024 and 2025 flows. Question 6 of the guidance adds that if you are not a resident of and working in a listed country, you are not eligible to be awarded a Hornby Scholarship. Upper Middle Income countries are included. Check your own country on the list the award page links to. A country named in a scholar profile, or in this guide, is not a substitute for that list.

Three years after your first degree

The Exeter award page says you need a minimum of three years’ full-time TESOL teaching or related professional experience after your first degree. The 2027-28 guidance says this can be three straight years or, with part-time work or gaps in employment, stretched across more years. Teaching you did before graduating does not count toward this rule as worded. Your answer here must match your dated employment history and your years with each learner group later in the form.

The 2:1 bar, which is higher than general MEd entry

The Exeter award page says you must already hold an undergraduate degree or equivalent with grades equivalent to a UK upper second class (2:1) honours degree or higher, or a relevant postgraduate degree. The MEd TESOL course page says the course considers applicants with a 2:2 honours degree or above, but that lower bar applies to the course, not the scholarship. The award page and School of Education page also say you must meet the University of Exeter’s admission criteria for the MEd TESOL.

The UK master’s and doctorate bars

The Exeter award page and the 2027-28 Applicant Guidance say you are not eligible if you already hold a doctoral degree in TESOL, applied linguistics, English or a related area, or a master’s degree in those areas from a UK university. Scholarship Tally’s view: if your related master’s is from a university outside the UK, email [email protected] before relying on that distinction. The 2027-28 guidance says that having interviewed for the Hornby Scholarship in an earlier cycle does not automatically exclude you.

English at the scholarship stage

The 2027-28 Applicant Guidance says that not currently meeting the University’s English language requirements is not a basis for excluding applicants at the scholarship stage and asks applicants to state only valid evidence. The MEd TESOL course page and the English language Profile B1 page show that the programme uses Profile B1, including International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Academic 6.5 overall with no less than 5.5 in any section. The Profile B1 page says IELTS and the other tests in that group are valid for two years before the programme starts.

Nationality or residence: how to read three different wordings

The official pages do not describe the country rule in the same words, and this is the point most likely to trip up teachers who live abroad.

• The award page’s entry requirements say you must be a resident of, and work in, a listed country.
• The award page introduction and the School of Education page say nationals of, and working in, listed countries.
• The Trust page says citizens of low- and middle-income countries on the DAC list.
• The form asks your country of citizenship and your country of residence as two separate questions.

Scholarship Tally’s reading, which is ours and not an extra official rule: plan on needing all three. Be a national of a listed country, live in a listed country and work in a listed country. A teacher who holds a listed nationality but lives and works outside a listed country fails the residence and work rule that the guidance says is required. A teacher living and working in a listed country without holding a listed nationality meets the residence rule but not the nationality wording on two official pages. If either case is yours, email [email protected] before you spend weeks on the statement.

What is paid, and what is not stated

Three official pages describe the money, each in slightly different words.

• Exeter award page: full fees; a monthly stipend to meet accommodation and living costs; return international travel costs.
• School of Education page: full funding for tuition, living costs and other associated expenses for the duration of the MEd TESOL.
• A.S. Hornby Educational Trust page: course fees; a monthly stipend to cover accommodation and living costs; travel and visa costs; any language test costs; a warm clothing allowance; a dissertation allowance.

No amount is published for the monthly stipend or for any of the allowances, and we will not estimate one. For scale only, the course page lists the 2027 entry international tuition fee for the MEd TESOL as 26,300 British pounds (GBP) per year full time. That is the fee the award covers, not money paid to you.

The reviewed Exeter award page, School of Education page, Trust page and MEd TESOL course page do not state that the following are covered:

• costs for family members who travel with you;
• the health surcharge;
• the optional Cambridge Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA) pathway. The MEd TESOL course page gives its additional fee as about GBP 1,750 in one place and about GBP 1,800 in another, and says it needs IELTS 7.0, a short interview and has limited places. Whether the Hornby award pays for it is not stated;
• whether the Trust’s language test costs include a test taken before selection.

The Exeter award page says the award is not combined with other scholarships and that, if you obtain another award, the Hornby Scholarship is only awarded if it is greater. Scholarship Tally’s view: the practical commitment is one full-time year in Exeter, away from your job and home.

The order of steps

Scholarship Tally’s view: one process point to get right is the sequence. The Exeter award page says there is no need to apply for the MEd TESOL first.

1. Read the award page, the 2027-28 applicant guidance PDF, the Trust scholarships page and the MEd TESOL course page before you open the form. Modules on the course page are subject to change.
2. Draft all your answers in Word or similar software, then paste them into the form. The guidance recommends this to prevent data loss.
3. Submit the Hornby Scholarship application form, which is linked from the award page. The 2027-28 guidance says the form has 31 questions, with all required for eligible applicants except question 5 where it does not apply.
4. Wait to be invited. The Exeter award page and 2027-28 guidance say applicants progressing to round 2 of shortlisting are invited by email to apply to the MEd TESOL, and the award page says every award is conditional on that application to the University of Exeter.
5. If shortlisted, provide the MEd supporting documents you agreed to supply in question 30, including English language evidence if applicable, as required by the guidance.
6. Attend the interview in the February window and wait for the outcome. The Exeter award page says that deferring your Exeter offer or changing your fee status could invalidate and withdraw your Hornby Scholarship offer.

Planning the supporting statement in your own words

The Trust and the University strongly discourage AI-generated material in Hornby applications, and the guidance says submissions that incorporate AI-generated text may be disadvantaged because the panel values authenticity, originality and personal reflection. For that reason this guide gives planning questions, not model answers.

Part 1a: one initiative that supported other teachers

Question 25 asks you to describe one initiative you undertook to support one or more ELT teachers. The guidance asks for just one, even if you have held management or coordination roles, so that your role, ways of working and contribution are clear. The example categories it gives are observing teachers (including post-observation feedback), supporting teachers with lesson planning, the target language or classroom management, delivering in-service education and training (INSET), and implementing a new school-based activity or policy. A small-scale initiative is acceptable, and if yours fits none of the categories you may write about something else.

Use the three bullet points on the form to structure the answer, and do not assume the panel knows your country context. Planning questions (Scholarship Tally’s view):

• Which single initiative had a clear start, and what was your own part in it rather than your job title?
• Who were the teachers, in what kind of school or institution, and what constraints did they face?
• What would a reader from another country need explained to follow what happened?

Part 1b: outcomes, evidence and sustainability

Question 26 asks you to reflect on outcomes; if the initiative is still running, preliminary outcomes are acceptable. The guidance’s sample questions are what evidence you have that it is or was successful, to what extent it is sustainable, and whether its sustainability could be improved. Planning questions (Scholarship Tally’s view): what counts or records do you already hold, such as teachers involved, sessions run or months sustained; what did not work; and what would you not claim?

Part 2: why this MEd, and why as a Hornby Scholar

Question 27 asks what about the Exeter MEd TESOL specifically could help you make meaningful change in ELT in your context, and how being a Hornby Scholar could help your future impact. The initiative you discuss here can extend the one in Part 1 or be something different, and the form gives three bullet points to follow. The guidance asks you to read the course page and the Trust page, including the profiles of current and past scholars.

Tie your answer to what the MEd TESOL course page actually lists. The course page says the full-time MEd is 180 credits: 120 compulsory and 60 optional. Its compulsory choices include Principles of Language Learning for TESOL (for teachers with two or more years’ full-time experience), Analysing and Teaching Language Systems and Skills, and a 60-credit research route through either Preparing for Educational Research and Dissertation or the Dissertation Portfolio. Optional modules include Developing Language Teachers, Principles and Practices of Curriculum Development and Syllabus Design, Technology, Learning and Pedagogy, Teaching English to Young Learners, Foreign Language Testing and Assessment, Teaching and Researching English for Academic Purposes, and an Education Placement. On the Trust side, the Trust page describes the alumni network, possible alumni project grants and support for seminars and workshops, so you can link your plan to them. The Trust’s approximate timeline places the annual International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) International Conference in April 2028, where each year’s scholars present.

The rest of the form: programme questions, history and English

The 2027-28 guidance says Questions 15 to 24 are ten questions about the MEd TESOL to be answered using the course website. It also says it is not necessarily a requirement to get each one correct. Scholarship Tally’s planning aid: answer them from the course page rather than from memory.

Questions 9 to 14 collect your experience and qualifications:

• whether you have the three years of full-time experience;
• your employment history, with dates in months and years, the employer’s name and address, and the positions you held;
• your full-time years teaching each listed learner group (you do not need experience with every group);
• a rating of your experience with listed teacher-development activities outside your standard teaching hours;
• your highest qualification and the names of your degrees and awarding institutions, leaving out anything below UK level 6 and any training courses.

The guidance says scholars come from a range of backgrounds, that little experience of the teacher-development activities does not lead to automatic exclusion, and that these activities may come up at interview.

Questions 28 and 29 ask whether you think you meet the English requirement and, if so, what valid evidence you hold. Scholarship Tally’s view: you do not need to book a test just to submit the form. If you are invited to apply for the MEd, you will need valid evidence then, so check the Profile B1 page early and plan any test around that later stage.

A six-week plan to submit by Friday 20 November

This is Scholarship Tally’s planning aid, not an official timetable. It assumes you start in the week of 12 October 2026 and work evenings or weekends.

• Week 1 (12 to 18 October): check your country on the DAC list, your nationality, residence and workplace, your degree class against the 2:1 bar, and the UK master’s and doctorate bars. Email the scholarship contact now if any answer is unclear.
• Week 2 (19 to 25 October): build your dated employment table (months and years, employers, addresses, positions) so later answers cannot contradict it.
• Week 3 (26 October to 1 November): choose the one initiative and draft Parts 1a and 1b from evidence you already have.
• Week 4 (2 to 8 November): read the course page and the Trust page, then draft Part 2 and your answers to the ten programme questions.
• Week 5 (9 to 15 November): confirm what English evidence is valid, paste everything into the form, and ask a colleague to check dates and facts only.
• Week 6 (16 to 20 November): submit by Friday 20 November and keep your Word draft.

Why not leave it to 22 November? No closing time is published. The UK is on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in November, so the end of 22 November UK time would already be early on Monday 23 November in East Africa. That is our own arithmetic, not an official statement, and the form could close earlier in the day.

What happens after you submit

• By 5 January 2027: The Exeter award page says applicants are told whether they have been shortlisted for interview. The award page and 2027-28 guidance say applicants who progress are invited by email to apply for the MEd TESOL; no separate date is published for that email.
• 15 to 24 February 2027: The Exeter award page says interviews take place in this window.
• By 4 March 2027: The Exeter award page says shortlisted applicants are told the final outcome by this date.
• September 2027: The Trust’s approximate timeline says scholars arrive in Exeter and the course begins.
• April 2028: The Trust’s approximate timeline says scholars attend the IATEFL conference.
• May to September 2028: The Trust’s approximate timeline describes dissertation writing, with the course ending in September 2028 and scholars returning home.

The 2027-28 guidance says the outcome is sent to the email address you enter in question 3 and that the Trust and the University are not responsible for delays if that address is wrong. The Exeter award page also says that if you withdraw or interrupt your studies after enrolling, Exeter’s finance regulations at that date apply to any repayment.

Two official pages show older text. The Trust page’s approximate timeline for 2027-2028 still says applications close in March 2027 and interviews take place in April to May 2027. It also mentions a briefing webinar in December 2026 but gives no date or details. The course page’s Hornby box still refers to September 2026 entry. The Exeter award page and the 2027-28 guidance describe the current call, with a 22 November 2026 closing date, so follow those.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Hornby Scholarship fully funded?

The award page calls the scholarships fully funded and lists full fees, a monthly stipend for accommodation and living costs, and return international travel; the Trust also lists visa costs, language test costs, a warm clothing allowance and a dissertation allowance. No amounts are published.

How many Hornby Scholarships are available for 2027/28?

Up to ten, according to the award page, whose summary box lists the number of awards as 10. Its terms add that Hornby Scholarships may not be awarded if suitable candidates are not found.

Can I apply if I am a national of a listed country but live abroad?

Not on the current wording. Question 6 of the guidance says applicants who are not resident in, and working in, a DAC-listed country are not eligible.

Do I need IELTS before 22 November 2026?

No. The 2027-28 Applicant Guidance says not yet meeting the English requirement is not a basis for exclusion at the scholarship stage. The MEd TESOL course page and Profile B1 page set the English requirement for the later MEd application.

Should I apply to the MEd TESOL first?

No. Submit the scholarship form first: the Exeter award page states that an MEd application is not needed at this stage. Both the award page and the guidance say those who reach round 2 are emailed an invitation to apply to the MEd, and the award is conditional on that application.

I was interviewed in a previous year. Can I apply again?

Yes. The guidance says an earlier interview does not rule you out automatically, and question 5 asks for the year or years you interviewed.

What time does the form close on 22 November 2026?

No closing time or time zone is published. Scholarship Tally’s view is to submit by Friday 20 November 2026 rather than rely on the final day.

Who do I contact with questions?

The Exeter award page lists the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Student Recruitment and Admissions team at [email protected] for scholarship questions. The MEd TESOL course page lists Programme Director Dr Nicholas Bremner at [email protected] for course questions.

Official sources

• A.S. Hornby Educational Trust Scholarship award page, University of Exeter (eligibility, value, key dates, terms and the link to the application form)
• Applicant Guidance for the 2027-28 Hornby Scholarship (PDF) (the 31 questions, the AI statement and the supporting statement guidance)
• School of Education Hornby Scholarship page (eligibility summary, what is included and scholar profiles)
• A.S. Hornby Educational Trust MEd TESOL scholarships page (aims, coverage list and an older approximate timeline; page updated 15 September 2026)
• MEd TESOL course page, University of Exeter (modules, fees, entry requirements and the CELTA pathway)
• English language requirements: Profile B1 (accepted tests, scores and validity periods)
• OECD DAC List of recipients, effective for reporting on 2024 and 2025 flows (PDF) (the country list linked from the award page)

Facts in this guide were checked on 7 October 2026. Dates and rules can change between cycles, so check the award page again before you submit.