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Financial Hardship
Access to Learning Fund
The Access to Learning Fund (ALF) provides financial assistance for students to help them access and remain in Higher Education. ALF can help to alleviate unexpected financial hardship, and any help you receive from ALF is non-repayable. Awards can range up to £3,500 in exceptional circumstances; this is the maximum any student could receive in one academic year.
Access to Learning Fund awards may be granted to undergraduates and postgraduates, both full-time and part-time, who are:
(i) 'Home' students;
(ii) Refugees, their spouses/civil partners, children or step-children;
(iii) Persons granted exceptional leave to enter or remain or indefinite leave to remain (ELE/ELR), or Humanitarian Protection or Discretionary Leave;
(iv) Nationals of the European Economic Area (EEA) employed in the UK, their spouses, and children, provided certain other conditions are met;
(v) EU nationals who lived in the UK and Islands for the three year period before the start of their course. Undergraduate students should complete form PN1 available from their Local Authority and return it to them with a letter stating they wish to apply for tuition fee and maintenance support, if this has not already been done. If the LA determines they are eligible, they will be eligible to apply to the Access to Learning Fund;
(vi) the child of a Swiss national or a Turkish worker.
Before applying for an ALF grant full-time undergraduate students should have taken out a Maintenance Loan (or NHS Bursary), if eligible, and applied for the full amount to which they are entitled. When assessing your application, Student Funding Services must assume you have taken out your full entitlement regardless of whether or not this is the case.
Please contact Student Funding Services for a copy of the application form, or if you have any enquiries relating to the application process.
Access to Learning Fund
Student Funding Services
University Offices
Wellington Square
Oxford OX1 2JD
Email: student.funding@admin.ox.ac.uk
Tel: 01865 (2)80487 or (2)70259
Childcare Relief Fund
All full time matriculated students with dependent children in registered or approved childcare, who encounter unexpected circumstances leading to financial hardship are eligible to apply. Matriculated students with dependent children in registered or approved childcare studying a full-time course part-time because of disability are also eligible to apply. The maximum Childcare Relief Fund award is £2,000.
Please contact Student Funding Services for a copy of the application form, or if you have any enquiries relating to the application process.
Childcare Relief Fund
Student Funding Services
University Offices
Wellington Square
Oxford OX1 2JD
Email: student.funding@admin.ox.ac.uk
Tel: 01865 (2)70259
Wolfson Childcare Scholarship
The Wolfson Childcare Bursary Fund provides funding to student parents who hold a University nursery place. The Bursary Fund is administered by the University's Joint Committee on Student Hardship and Childcare Funds, and matriculated student parents who hold a University nursery place are eligible to apply. The Bursary awarded is up to half the annual cost of a nursery place. Students will be expected to provide evidence of the actual cost of the nursery place and confirmation that it is a University nursery place.
In order to be considered, student parents should fill in an Access to Learning Fund application form (Home students) or a Childcare Relief Fund application form (EU and Overseas students) before January 2009. Contact Student Funding Services at student.funding@admin.ox.ac.uk for more information.
University Hardship Fund
The Committee on Student Hardship makes awards on the grounds of unforeseeable hardship and may provide help in the form of a grant or loan, depending on the applicant's circumstances. Awards to successful applicants are made on the basis of a comparison of a student's finances for the current academic year with University estimates of finances required. The Committee meets on a termly basis but will not normally consider more than one application per student per year, unless there have been significant changes in that student's circumstances. Awards generally do not exceed £2000. All students registered for a degree at the University are eligible to apply to the Committee.
You should collect a form from your College Secretary and visit the College Hardship Officer at your College before completing the application. Your application will need to be supported by both your college and your tutor/supervisor.
Deadlines: Monday of fourth week (Friday of second week in Trinity Term). All parts of the application form must have been received by these dates. Your college will send the form in on your behalf when all parts have been completed.
Application forms are available from College Secretaries and College Hardship Officers.
Churches' Commission for International Students Hardship Fund
This fund was set up in 1990 to assist full-time international students who are already in the UK and are facing unexpected financial problems during the final stages of their course.
Awards are made to students from developing countries who intend to return home after their current course and who can show that their qualification will benefit such countries. Awards are typically £500 but do not exceed £800 and are made to applicants undertaking a full-time first degree or postgraduate studies lasting a minimum of one academic year. The same person is not funded twice.
Awards are made to students who are within 6 months of finishing and can show that their financial problems are unexpected and that a small grant will enable them to complete their studies.
Decisions are made three times a year, in February (for studies finishing April-July), June (for August-November), and October (for December-March).
Candidates who think they may be eligible should write to David Philpot, Grants Secretary, CCIS Hardship Fund, 121 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4YN.
Emergency Grants from the British Federation of Women Graduates
This foundation aims to help women graduates (UK and overseas) who are studying in the UK by offering grants to help with living costs. They offer a small number of awards including emergency grants. These are one off payments intended to help cover an unexpected financial crisis affecting the completion of an academic year's work. Applicants must show that they had made realistic provision for their year's study but now face an unforeseeable financial crisis. No grant is likely to exceed £1000.
Further details are available at www.ffwg.org.uk.
Application forms available by emailing jean.c@blueyonder.co.uk explaining the nature of the emergency.
Other
You might also like to have a look at the list of prizes, awards and scholarships currently available.
Student Health and Welfare webmaster
(student.welfare@admin.ox.ac.uk)