The Adi and Isca Wittenberg Scholarship (2025)

In 2025, one person will be supported with a Wittenberg Scholarship to study for a first degree or equivalent professional qualification. The Scholarship will focus on mental health related degree courses such as mental health nursing, psychology, or social work.

The scholarship will pay home tuition fees* and associated study costs. The specific amount awarded will be dependent on the candidate’s individual circumstances and university location.

*The Trust will help candidates who are successful at interview to negotiate home fees from their chosen university. The final award of a Wittenberg Scholarship will be dependent on successfully getting a ‘home’ tuition fee offer.

Please make sure you meet the following criteria before applying:

1. Be aged 30 years or younger.
2. Be an asylum seeker (or the dependent of an asylum seeker) who is awaiting a decision or appealing a decision for asylum from the UK Home Office;  OR a person (or dependent of a person) who claimed asylum in the UK and has been granted Limited Leave to Remain or some other form of temporary status such as Calais Leave, Discretionary Leave to Remain, Section 67 leave, or UASC leave.
3. A student wishing to pursue an undergraduate degree or equivalent professional qualification in a mental health related degree course such as mental health nursing, psychology, or social work.

Applications for the 2025 intake have now closed. Applications for the 2026 intake will open in spring of 2026.

Please read our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) document before beginning the online application form.

Please also read our online application form Guidance Notes before beginning an application.

Applications must be made using the online form - however, should you wish to prepare your answers, you can do so using this Word version of the form.

Background of the Adi and Isca Wittenberg Scholarship

Both Adi and Isca Wittenberg became refugees at the age of 16, when they were forced to flee Nazi Germany. Yet both were determined, despite the war and financial struggles, to return to education, obtain degrees and pursue successful careers.

Isca, who since childhood wanted to ‘help others to be able to help themselves,’ studied social work before training as a psychotherapist. Adi studied for 7 years at night school to get his degree in mechanical engineering.

“Remember,” he told his sons, “Everything can be taken from you except what is in your mind.”

As part of their legacy, both Adi and Isca wanted to help refugees access higher education.