APRIL 14, 2025 — The Winston Churchill Foundation has selected UTSA to become a participating institution in its Churchill Scholarship Program, one of the most competitive international scholarships available for American graduate students. As part of the program, UTSA will be eligible to nominate two students each year for the prestigious award. It will join 135 universities across the nation as a Churchill participating institution, including fellow Texas institutions UT-Austin, Texas A&M, Rice and Baylor.

The Churchill Scholarship grants up to 18 awards annually to outstanding undergraduate seniors and recent graduates in STEM fields, allowing them to pursue a one-year research-based Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. The award supports a unique postgraduate master’s degree opportunity with an emphasis on independent research, rather than more traditional forms of classroom instruction. The total value of each scholarship, which includes tuition, airfare, visa fees and a stipend, is around $75,000.

“As an R1 public research institution, UTSA has been able to extend research opportunities to a larger number of undergraduates, and joining the Churchill Scholarship Program will help us offer even more of these transformative research opportunities,” said Andrew Chapman, director of the UTSA Office of Nationally Competitive Awards (ONCA). “We’ve seen UTSA students develop as independent-minded researchers and demonstrate excellence in their fields at the national level through conference presentations, publications and winning national awards.”

“As an R1 public research institution, UTSA has been able to extend research opportunities to a larger number of undergraduates.”

The Churchill Scholarship Program selects participating institutions that demonstrate a strong commitment to supporting undergraduate research in STEM fields. UTSA’s application to participate in the program, which was led by ONCA, highlighted recent students who have won prestigious STEM scholarships and entered top Ph.D. programs, showcasing the university’s dedication to fostering its undergraduate research talent.

For example, UTSA has led Texas for the past six years in Goldwater Scholarship recipients, the premier undergraduate research award in STEM. UTSA has also demonstrated how NSF- and NIH-funded Ph.D. training programs, such as APPEX and ESTEEMED, are preparing the next generation of STEM research leaders.

UTSA’s Churchill application discussed how the university’s integration with UT Health San Antonio will lead to even more research opportunities for STEM students, as UTSA becomes the third largest research university in Texas.

The Churchill Scholarship was established at the request of Sir Winston Churchill as part of the founding of Churchill College, Cambridge. It fulfills his vision of deepening the US–UK partnership and advancing science and technology on both sides of the Atlantic. The scholarship is one of several prestigious international awards to which Roadrunners can apply, including the Fulbright Program, the Rhodes Scholarship, the Gilman Scholarship and the Goldwater Scholarship.

Students who are interested in applying for the Churchill Scholarship can contact the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards. The UTSA nomination deadline is October 1, 2025.   

— Andrew Chapman