A deferred place is not a deferred scholarship

You can often push a university offer back a year. Your scholarship is a separate offer from a separate body, and it usually does not move with the place. Treat them as two different requests with two different answers.

The University of Nottingham spells this out for its own awards. It lets postgraduate offer holders request a deferral to the next academic year, but says it “does not usually defer scholarship offers to the following year”. If you defer, the scholarship is withdrawn and you reapply for scholarships the following year, with no guarantee of winning again. Nottingham also says it cannot waive the tuition deposit for someone deferring in the hope of a Chevening or Commonwealth award they have not yet been given, so you would pay the deposit to hold your place.

So before you ask anyone for an extra year, find out who holds each piece of your funding. Then check each one’s rules separately.

What four funders say

Policies vary a lot, and most are short. Here is what four of them publish.

Chevening

Chevening allows a deferral request in one situation. Its next-steps page for selected applicants says you can ask to defer your award to the next cycle through a form on its ASAMS portal, but that “Deferral requests will be only considered in the case of pregnancy or maternity”. The Chevening Secretariat reviews the request and your programme officer tells you the outcome. If deferral is granted, your details stay on ASAMS so you can be re-enrolled in the next cycle. If it is refused, you can either continue with your placement in the current cycle or withdraw by completing a withdrawal form, so think about which you would choose before you ask. Our Chevening entry has the wider process.

Applying with a deferred university offer is a different matter, and Chevening allows it. The offer must be for a Chevening eligible course, you still need to name three eligible courses, and you must hold an unconditional offer from one of them by the deadline.

Commonwealth Scholarships (UK)

The Commonwealth Scholarship Commission is direct about it. Its FAQ for Commonwealth Shared Scholars says “The Commission cannot normally agree to deferments” and asks you to contact your programme officer about individual concerns. That FAQ covers the Shared Scholarships, so check the page for your own scheme if you hold a different Commonwealth award.

The same FAQ warns that your award will not be extended or deferred if you have not completed the visa and immigration requirements in good time. A slow visa is your problem to solve early, not a reason the Commission will hold your award. See our Commonwealth Scholarships entry for how the scheme works. Commonwealth awards also come through nominators, which our guide to nominated scholarships explains.

Australia Awards

Australia Awards Scholarships are tied to a single year, with narrow exceptions. The November 2025 policy handbook says “All scholarships must be taken up in the year for which they are awarded”. If you cannot start by November of the award year, the offer is withdrawn and you may reapply for the next intake.

Section 6.4 of the handbook sets out two different kinds of deferral:

  • Later in the same year. At the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s discretion, you may start later within the academic year of the award. The handbook says reasons can include pregnancy, visa issues and family or work responsibilities, and that you may have to pay visa extension costs.
  • Into the following year. Only in “very exceptional cases” where the cause is beyond your control, with border or travel restrictions, visa processing delays and foundation courses offered only in first semester as its examples. Work or family commitments, health issues (excluding disability) and not meeting the English requirement are not acceptable reasons for deferral beyond the year of the award. In those cases you decline the offer and reapply when you are ready.

You can only request a deferral after you have accepted the scholarship and signed the contract, and before you arrive in Australia. The handbook says to contact your Australia Awards office as soon as possible after receiving the offer, and that only the Program Area or the department can approve a deferral. If you are granted one, you keep the conditions in your original contract and must complete the next available initial academic program. We read the November 2025 handbook on the Australia Awards Vanuatu site, so check the current version with your own Australia Awards office. Our entries for Australia Awards in Africa and for the Indo-Pacific and South Asia cover the application side.

University of Cambridge

Cambridge’s position on its own places is that “In general, you cannot defer your place to another academic year”. To start the next year you would normally submit a new application and pay the application fee again. It will only consider a deferral request if you have met your academic, financial and language conditions and one of a listed set of circumstances prevented you from starting. The list includes disability, pregnancy or maternity leave, paternity leave, a one-year military posting, serious health issues or treatment (with evidence from a health practitioner), a short-term crisis where you are the sole carer of a dependent child or family member, sudden and unexpected loss of financial support, and sudden travel restrictions or other arbitrary actions by a third party that prevent entry to the UK.

Three conditions matter. Only one delay is permitted. You pay the course fee for the new year, which may be higher. And if the request is declined, your existing offer is withdrawn, so Cambridge tells you to ask only if you genuinely cannot take up the place. If you hold Cambridge funding, the funder is asked to make a matching delay, and so is your College. If any of them do not agree, the request may be refused. Cambridge also says a late visa or ATAS certificate will not, in general, count as an exceptional circumstance, and that nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan affected by the UK government’s visa brake, announced in March 2026, cannot request a cross-year deferral. The form must be submitted before 9 November for PhD applicants, and before 7 October for everyone else.

What this means in practice

Three patterns show up across these policies:

  • Deferral is the exception, not a right. Where it exists, it covers a narrow list of reasons, usually pregnancy, serious illness or a family crisis.
  • Visa delays are treated unevenly. The Commission and Cambridge both say a late visa will not count. Australia Awards lists visa processing delays among its examples of exceptional cases, but only for a start later in the same year or in very exceptional circumstances for the next. Do not assume your funder will accept a visa delay as a reason, and start the visa process as soon as you are allowed.
  • Everyone has to agree. A university can approve your deferral while your funder refuses it. You need a yes from each party, in writing.

How to ask, if you have a qualifying reason

Contact your programme officer or scholarship office as soon as you know you cannot start. Do not wait until the week before enrolment. Use the funder’s own form or process where one exists, such as Chevening’s ASAMS deferral form or Cambridge’s online form, and note any deadline for the request itself.

In your request, give the reason plainly, attach evidence (a letter from a health practitioner, for example), and say which start date you are asking for. Keep it short and factual. Then contact your university separately, because its deferral process and deadlines are its own.

Get every answer in writing, and if your offer is still conditional, read our guide to meeting offer conditions in time as well. A phone call saying “that should be fine” does not protect you if a new officer takes over your file next year. Our guide on what happens after you win covers the other paperwork you will be handling at the same time, and our guide to using a gap year looks at a planned year out from the application side.

If you cannot defer

If your funder says no, you have three realistic options.

Take up the award as planned. If the reason you wanted to wait is not urgent, starting on time may cost you less than losing the money. Work through the costs honestly, the same way you would when comparing two offers.

Decline and reapply. Nottingham and Australia Awards both point to reapplying as the route back in. Nothing guarantees you will win again, and eligibility can change. Check whether you would still meet the rules, including any limit on how long since graduation, before you decline.

Decline gracefully. If you do turn an award down, tell the funder promptly and politely. Reserve candidates may be waiting on your place. A clear, early refusal also leaves a better record if you apply again, which our guide to reapplying after a rejection can help you plan.

A quick checklist before you decide

  • List every source of money: scholarship, university award, sponsor, loan.
  • Find each one’s written deferral policy, on its own site.
  • Check whether your reason is on its accepted list, and whether there is a deadline for asking.
  • Ask the university and each funder separately, in writing.
  • Do not decline anything until you have every answer.