For 2026 the Inner Temple will have over £1.8 million available in scholarships for those undertaking the Bar Course.
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Bar Course Scholarships
Breakdown of Awards
Bar Course Scholarships are awarded in three main categories - Named Scholarships, Major Scholarships and Exhibition Scholarships.
There are seven Named Scholarships available each year. These are awarded to those that receive the highest marks for their scholarship application and interview, against the Inn's scholarships criteria. These scholarships are not means-tested and consist of one Peter Taylor Scholarship of £22,000, one Stephen Chapman Scholarship of £21,000 and five Princess Royal Scholarships of £20,000 each.
There are 20 Major Scholarships available each year. These are the second tier of scholarship and are awarded to the next 20 best scoring candidates. The value of each Major Scholarship is determined by a financial assessment. The minimum award is £3,000 and the maximum award is £20,000.
There are approximately 93 Exhibition Scholarships available each year available to those who perform very well in their scholarship application and interview. The value of each Exhibition Scholarship is determined by a financial assessment. The minimum award is £3,000 and the maximum award is £20,000.
There are 18 Benefactors Scholarships and Prizes available. These are awarded in conjunction with Exhibition Scholarships, to the top 18 scholars in the Exhibition Scholarships tier.
There are 50 Duke of Edinburgh Awards, values at £175 each to cover membership admissions fees and Call to the Bar fees. These are awarded based on financial assessment.
Application Procedure
Applications for 2026 will open on 22 September 2025. The deadline to submit your application will be 11.59pm on Friday 7 November 2025.
Please note that some changes have been introduced to the process in the 2025/26 year and applicants are advised to read through the below before submitting an application.
- • To be eligible you must have the intention to practice at the Bar of England and Wales once qualified.
- • You must be eligible to start the Bar Course in the academic year following your application.
- • You can only apply for a scholarship if you have not yet started the Bar Course and will not have started at the point of interview (the following Feb/March).
- • Students may only apply for a scholarship from one of the four Inns of Court. Names of applicants are shared between Inns to ensure that students have not applied to more than one Inn. Where it is discovered that an applicant has made an application to another Inn they will be disqualified.
- • You must not have already received a Bar Course Scholarship from Inner Temple, or another Inn of Court.
If your course start date changes between submitting your application, and the interview, you must inform us, as this could affect your eligibility.
For example, if you plan to start the Bar Course in autumn 2025 or January 2026, you cannot apply in our upcoming Bar Course scholarship round.
The Scholarships criteria are:
Academic Achievement
- Good degree result/predicted grade
- Demonstrates strong academic achievement at university (taking into account any mitigating circumstances).
- Demonstrates strong academic achievement at each academic stage or improvement in academic achievement at different stages.
- Evidence of scholarships or prizes awarded.
Advocacy Potential
- Evidence of advocacy/public speaking experience in legal or non-legal contexts e.g. moots, debates, presenting to an audience, teaching, drama.
- Uses precise and well-reasoned arguments.
- Communicates with clarity and fluency.
- Demonstrates persuasiveness and conviction.
- Tailors style to the audience.
Legal Analysis & Reasoning
- Effectively analyses the case.
- Identifies the important issues.
- Identifies the key points of the parties’ argument(s).
- Identifies the appeal court’s decision and reasons.
Interpersonal Skills
- Builds productive working relationships.
- Treats people with courtesy and respect, regardless of their background or circumstances.
- Responds appropriately to people from diverse backgrounds
- Responds appropriately to people with different abilities
Motivation & Resilience
- Demonstrates commitment to a career at the Bar.
- Has a good understanding of the profession.
- Demonstrates interest in one/more practice areas and explains why.
- Demonstrates what steps they have undertaken to learn more about a career at the Bar. E.g. attending webinars, listening to podcasts, undertaking work experience/mini pupillages, shadowing, marshalling etc.
- Demonstrates the ability to positively respond to set backs.
In order to apply for a scholarship you will be required to submit an online application form, which will be linked below, when the application window is open.
The application form is broken down into 8 sections – contact information; educational details (A-levels and degree information); work experience (non-legal, paid legal and other legal experiences); supporting information; ; contextual recruitment; interview requirements, and equality monitoring.
The ‘supporting information’ section includes professional statement/ essay style questions, which are specific to the scholarship you are applying for and answers to these questions in particular will be used to assess your application.
Candidates submit one application form and are considered for all Inner Temple Bar Course Awards (listed above) at the same time.
Once you have submitted your application form, you will be required to provide the details (names and contact details) for two referees who can support your application - these can be either academic or professional references.
An automatic email will then be sent to the referees, asking them to complete our online reference form.
All referees should have known the applicant for at least 6 months. Please note that family members cannot provide references.
Referees will be asked to provide brief comment on each of the scholarships criteria.
The deadline for references to be submitted by referees is 11.59pm on Monday 17 November 2025. Applicants are advised to inform their referee of this deadline in advance.
References submitted after the reference deadline will only be accepted under extenuating circumstances, with prior approval from the Scholarships Team.
In line with the Inn’s commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, we invite applicants to submit contextual recruitment information, as part of the scholarship application process.
Inner Temple is continuing to use the Rare Contextual Recruitment System (CRS) which allows us to understand each applicant’s achievements in the context in which they have been gained. We seek to award scholarships to the best people, from every background, regardless of their personal circumstances, and the CRS will help us to do that. The CRS is only ever used to screen people in, not out. Under no circumstances are candidates put at any disadvantage for supplying this information.
Contextual recruitment information is collected via a separate form, which is linked within the application form.
We will be hosting online Application Q&A sessions on the dates listed below. During these sessions, we will give information on completing the application form, what applicants can expect of the scholarships process and answer any questions about the process.
Event information will be sent, via email, to anyone signed up to the application form in the week prior to the events.
- Monday 6 October 2025 – 6-7pm
- Wednesday 22 October 2025 – 6-7pm
Applications are now closed. Applications for 2026 will open in September 2025.
Shortlisting
Following a recommendation made by an independent EDI review of the Inner Temple’s Scholarship Process to introduce shortlisting into the process, and in the context of increasing applications, the Scholarships and Outreach Committee has, after very careful consideration, made the decision to approve the introduction of a shortlisting process, in order to ensure that the system has enough capacity to assess candidates fairly.
The Inn remains committed to ensuring, as far as possible that all applicants who stand within a reasonable chance of securing a scholarship have the opportunity of attending an interview.
‘Academic Achievement’ and ‘Motivation & Resilience’ have been selected as the criteria on which the Inn’s shortlisting will be based. These criteria have been selected on the basis of being strong indicators of success in the scholarship process.
The Inn continues to be committed to the use of contextual recruitment in the application process, understanding that it is important to consider achievements to date in the context in which they were achieved. As such both contextual recruitment information and mitigating circumstances will play an important part in the shortlisting process.
The Inn has implemented a 2-stage shortlisting process.
Shortlisting Stage 1 (all applicants):
- •Using the Education sections of the application form, panels of at least 2 trained assessors, will mark each application form against the Academic Achievement criteria.
- •Mitigating circumstances will be taken into account in the marking process.
- •Each applicant will be given a score from 0 to 5 points for Academic Achievement.
- •Applicants who score 4 or 5 for Academic Achievement will be invited to interview.
- •Applicants who score 3 for Academic Achievement will go through to a secondary shortlist review (Stage 2)
- •Applicants who score 1 or 2 for Academic Achievement will not be invited to interview.
Shortlisting Stage 2 (applicants who score 3 or more for Academic Achievement):
- •Application forms will be marked against the following scholarships criteria - Motivation & Resilience, Advocacy Potential and Interpersonal Skills.
- •Using the ‘Motivation & Resilience’ sections of the application form (i.e. instances of engagement with the legal sector; through work/other experiences), panels of at least 2 trained assessors, will mark each application form against the ‘Motivation & Resilience’ criteria.
- •Each applicant will be given a score from 0 to 5 points for ‘Motivation & Resilience’.
- •Applicants who score 4 or 5 for Motivation & Resilience, will be invited to interview.
- •Applicants who score 3 or less for Motivation & Resilience, will not be invited to interview.
Contextual Recruitment data will be reviewed for all applicants reviewed under Stage 2 of the process.
All applicants will receive an email byon 14 January 2026, to inform them of the outcome of the shortlisting process. If successful, applicants will have 5 days to book their interview slot.
‘Academic Achievement’ and ‘Motivation & Resilience’ have been selected as the criteria on which the Inn’s shortlisting will be based. These criteria have been selected on the basis of being strong indicators of success in the scholarship process.
The Inn continues to be committed to the use of contextual recruitment in the application process, understanding that it is important to consider achievements to date in the context in which they were achieved. As such both contextual recruitment information and mitigating circumstances will play an important part in the shortlisting process.
Financial Assessment
If invited to interview, applicants are asked to complete a financial means assessment form in the January after submitting their scholarship application. As part of this, applicants are asked to provide details of their financial situation for their upcoming Bar Course year. This includes income, outgoings, other financial support available (in the form of scholarships, grants, savings, and financial support from family/ guardians/ partners), and course fees.
The financial assessment data is only considered, after the scholarship interviews have been conducted and the scholars have been selected, based on merit as assessed against the Inn’s scholarships criteria.
The Inn's goal is to financially level the playing field amongst our scholars. The financial means assessment uses the collected financial data to calculate how much funding will be available to each scholar during their bar course year. The value of Major Scholarships and Exhibition Scholarships are determined based on this calculation. The minimum value of a scholarship is £3,000 and the maximum value of a scholarship is £20,000.
Interview Process
The Inn expects all candidates to attend an in-person interview, unless there are exceptional circumstances which necessitate an online interview.
Interviews will be held in London and in Leeds.
In 2026, Bar Course scholarship interviews are expected to be held between Friday 13 February and Saturday 21 February (exact dates and locations will be confirmed by 1 September 2025).
1. On arrival you will be registered and provided with an information sheet to read through. This sheet includes instructions for the case exercise, which forms part of the interview.
2. If attending in person, at the appropriate time you will be taken to a reading room and given a judgment to read through, which you will be asked questions on in the interview. The questions that you are likely to be asked about this judgment will be provided on the information sheet to help you prepare for this case exercise. If you are attending virtually, you will receive a copy of the legal judgment via email at the appropriate time.
3. When it is time for your interview, you will be greeted by a panel of at least 3 trained interviewers, who will take turns asking you questions based on the scholarships criteria. All panel members will have been sent your application form prior to the interviews.
4. The interview will last approximately 20 minutes.
Results are usually distributed, via email, by the end of March.
Each year, we hold pre-interview briefing meetings with candidates in late January/ early February, prior to the interviews. During these meetings, candidates are given further information about the interview format.
How is my application assessed?
We will assess your application (form and interview) using a points-based system, assessing against each of the scholarship criteria.
The application forms of all shortlisted candidates will be assessed, against the scholarships criteria, by at least 2 members. These application form marks will be submitted to the Scholarships Team.
Interview panels will not be given a copy of your application form, and application form marks will not be shared with interview panels. Those who mark your application form will not be on your interview panel.
The interview panel, of at least 3 trained members, will ask each candidate questions which are specifically aimed to assess the scholarships criteria.
Please refer to the table below for more information on how each criterion is assessed.
| CRITERIA | DESCRIPTION | ASSESSMENT METHOD |
| Academic Achievement |
| Application form |
| Advocacy Potential |
| Application form & interview performance |
| Legal Analysis and Reasoning Skills |
| Interview performance |
| Interpersonal Skills |
| Application form & interview performance |
| Motivation & Resilience |
| Application form & interview performance |
Bar Course Scholarship Application Statistics
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Applications | 395 | 387 | 489 |
| Interviewed (applicants minus withdrawals) | 354 | 337 | 435 |
| Total Awards | 142 | 120 | 116 |
Alternative Sources of Funding for the Bar Course
We understand that financing of Bar Course studies can be a big barrier to a career at the Bar and we are committed to widening access to the profession. We aim to support meritorious candidates to be able to reach their potential through our scholarship programmes, but please see below some information on the other financial options available.
If applying for the combined Bar Course and LLM (offered by some course providers), you may be eligible to apply for a postgraduate Master's loan from Student Finance. If your course starts after 1 August 2023, the loan is up to £12,167.
There are a number of high street banks which offer graduate loans which may assist you in covering accomodation and a portion of your course fees.
Many Bar Course providers have their own scholarship/grant schemes which can provide a contribution towards the cost of undertaking the Bar Course.
If you are successful in obtaining pupillage before you start the Bar course, some Chambers/Employers will allow you to ‘draw down’ some of your pupillage award to finance your Bar Course.
It is also possible to undertake the Bar Course part-time or as a 2-part course at certain providers, which enables the splitting of the cost of fees.
You may also consider working part-time during the course to assist you financially, and help you gain experience (depending on role).