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Financial Aid Fund

Financial Aid Fund

Partner and apprenticeship students are not eligible for these hardships and bursaries and should contact their own institution.

The Financial Aid Fund provides discretionary financial assistance for students to help them access and remain in higher education.

It is particularly aimed for those students who need financial help to meet specific course and living costs that cannot be met from other sources of support. The fund can provide emergency payments for unexpected financial crises. Payments are usually given as grants, which do not have to be repaid.

Full and part-time students who are in receipt of their maximum financial statutory support package are eligible to apply. Part-time students must be studying the equivalent of 50 per cent of a full-time course.

 

Your application will be treated either as a 'standard' or a 'non-standard' claim. We will assess 'standard' applications under an additional need method that looks at the difference between accepted reasonable expenditure and expected income. If you have unforeseen circumstances, then your application can be considered under a 'non-standard' assessment.

The assessment process for 'standard' and 'non-standard' awards is designed to identify students who have particular financial needs and those who are in unforeseen financial difficulty. This should result in most of the available funding being directed towards students with a low income and those who have exceptionally high course related costs.

 

Home Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students will need to meet the following in order to apply to the Financial Aid Fund:

  • Studying Full time or Part-Time, Distance Learning or Sandwich courses
  • Be enrolled and within their course start and end dates for their current academic year of study. Students completing referral work outside of these dates can apply with an official end date extension.
  • Must not be a debtor to the University and must be up to date with their tuition fee payment plan.
  • Been approved for student finance or equivalent funding body for their current academic year of study.
  • Must be able to demonstrate that they have made adequate provision to fund their Tuition Fees and living costs.

 

E.U Undergraduate Students will need to meet the following in order to apply to the Financial Aid Fund:

  • Studying Full time or Part-Time, Distance Learning or Sandwich courses
  • Be enrolled and within their course start and end dates for their current academic year of study. Students completing referral work outside of these dates can apply with an official end date extension.
  • Must not be a debtor to the University and must be up to date with their tuition fee payment plan.
  • Continue to be tuition fee funded by Student finance England and approved for funding for their current academic year of study.
  • Must be able to demonstrate that they have made adequate provision to fund their Tuition Fees and living costs.

 

Suspended, Interrupted and Dormant Students

Suspended, Interrupted and Dormant students can apply but awards are capped at £500 maximum per academic year and will need to meet the relevant Home or E.U criteria outlined.

If you are unable to attend your course for health or caring reasons or for some other unavoidable circumstance, you can apply for help. You must provide evidence from your Faculty and your General Practitioner (G.P.) to support your claim.

 

The fund is there to help any eligible student who has a particular financial need but we cannot meet every application we receive and we cannot always meet all of the costs that you might apply for.

The University gives priority to the following groups of students when deciding how to allocate the funding:

For full time undergraduate students the priority groups are:

  • Students with children (especially lone parents)
  • Mature students, especially those with existing financial commitments, including priority debts
  • Students from low income families
  • Disabled students (especially where the DSA is unable to meet particular costs)
  • Students who have entered higher education from care
  • Students from Foyers or who are homeless
  • Students receiving the final year loan rate who are in financial difficulty.

For part time undergraduate and postgraduate students the priority groups are:

  • Students with children (especially lone parents)
  • Students without sponsorship or other funding (postgraduate students)
  • Disabled students (especially where the DSA is unable to meet particular costs).

If you are not in one of the priority groups you can still apply but you must provide as much evidence as possible to show why you have a particular need.

You may apply more than once during an academic year for help from the Financial Aid Fund but usually only if your circumstances have changed. You will be asked to provide documentary evidence for the change in circumstance.

 

 

If you wish to apply for assistance from the Financial Aid Fund, in the first instance, please contact the Students' Union Advice Centre, the telephone number is 01494 603016.