I am a bit confused in regards to a postgraduate scholarship that I've been awarded and I was hoping that some of you might be able to shed some light on the issue.

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Earlier this year I received a letter containing an offer of a scholarship from a Graduate school administrator, wherein it was stated that:

"The award will pay the home fees, and a maintenance allowance of 13863 pounds in 2014/15 "

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A couple of months later (Today), I received another somewhat similar letter from the admissions services, wherein it was stated that:

"This offer is subject to you obtaining financial support to cover tuition fees and any other expenses for the duration of your studies. The tuition fee amount shown below is for one academic year only and is payable by you or your sponsor. Further fees will be payable for a programme longer than one academic year

Tuition fee for first year: 3996 pounds

50% of the fee above must be paid before or at a formal registration or you must show approved financial sponsorship

you have been awarded the following bursary:
- Graduate school home/EU 14/15

The amount shown will be deducted from the first year tuition fee above. The award is subject to you self-funding the tuition fee. If you are sponsored this bursary may not be available. The bursary is subject to review should your fee status, start date or programme change"

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It was my understanding from the first letter that I received that the scholarship covered both the tuition fee and then an additional 13863 pounds in allowance. But from the second letter it seems that the 13863 pounds have to cover both the tuition and living cost.
Is this a mistake from the university or have I simply misunderstood the wording?

That does sound really confusing!

Where is says 'The amount shown will be deducted from the first year tuition fee above', is there an amount stated or is it just 'Graduate school home/EU 14/15'? If there's no amount, then that makes me think there is something wrong with the letter.

Sometimes these letters are generated automatically or by mail merge and therefore they may contain incorrect information if the information in the system is inaccurate or missing.

I think if they have already told you that you will get a stipend and fees covered, then this is probably correct and the second letter is a mistake.

You could email the department administrator to check.

What I have written was precisely the wording used in the email I received (I've cut out the rest of the email as it was not relevant). So yeah I assume that they mean the amount that is covered by the "'Graduate school home/EU 14/15'" bursary.

I am fairly certain that the tuition fees were already covered. Nevertheless I'll write an email to my main supervisor to check, just wanted to be certain that I haven't misunderstood the system.

Seems like a template and they've just added your scholarship name to it. They should have amended the "The amount shown" part, as they haven't written the amount. Nonetheless after deducting the value of "Graduate school home/EU 14/15", you owe nothing. Seems to me that the "self-funding" part just means that you can only have the award (which covers fees too- if that's what you've already been told), if you haven't already secured funding elsewhere (i.e. if you've already been offered funding from another body, you're expected to take it). Don't worry. Seems fine to me.