Facilitator Session Script Key

Facilitator Manual –FACILITATOR SESSION SCRIPT: STUDENT FINANCE

Welcome and Introduction

[Welcome the students as they come in. Once all of the students have arrived and are sitting at tables introduce the topic of the session.]

If the class has previously done a Supplementary Schools ProjectTeachers’ Toolkit session, briefly ask the students what they can remember from the last session to bring in the topic.

Today, we are going to be learning all about student finance. It’s important to get a good understanding of student finance and what it’s all about because it plays a big role in your overall transition to university.

By the end of the session we will:

Understand what student finance is and what it’s for
Know the different types of financial assistance that are on offer to you to help you cover the costs of going to university
Learn how to budget your money whilst at university
Understand how student loan repayment works

Just before we go into the first activity, I’m going to hand out these post it notes. I’d like each of you to write down one thing you would like tolearn about student finance by the end of the session today and then pop it onto the flipchart paper [facilitator to indicate where the flipchart paper is in the room for students to put their post-it notes on].

Once students have finished with their post-it notes click to go to next slide if using PowerPointfor the next activity

With lots of information going around about student finance these days it can be quite hard to separate the myths from the facts. So to get you warmed up and to see how much you already know, I want you to complete this quick quiz.

[Facilitator to hand out the ‘Student finance: Do You Know The Facts?’ handout to the students to complete in pairs or groups].

Before you start, I just want to clarify that I’m not expecting you to know all of the answers to this quiz so don’t worry if you find that you can’t answer some of them. I just want you to have a go at them and see how much you already know- you might surprise yourself!

[Once students are finished with the questions the facilitator should go through the answers and offer explanations]

Student finance:Do you know the facts? Answers

1)Which of these is available from Student Finance England?

b. Loans to help you with tuition fees and living costs

Explanation:this is what is meant when we say student finance- it’s just a broad term to describe the money that you can get to help you to cover the costs of university.

2)When should you apply for student finance?

As soon as possible

Explanation:you do not need to wait until you have a confirmed place from a university. Applying earlier on will help the process go smoothly and will help to ensure that your money will get to your account in time. Whilst there is no real start date to begin applying for student finance, there is a deadline. The deadline for submitting an application is 9 months after the start of the academic year.

3)What will your student loan repayments be based on?

Your future income

Explanation: so it’s all based on how much you make once you’ve graduated. It wouldn’t be fair to be expecting the same loan repayments from absolutely everyone. They take into account how much you earn so they can know how much you can afford to pay back.

4)How much do you need to earn before you start to repay?

b. £21,000 per year

Explanation: it’s only when you start to earn over this amount that you need to start repaying your loan.

5)If you’ve graduated and earn £25,000 per year, how much will you be repaying of your student loan per month?

£30 per month

Explanation:so when you start to earn over £21,000 your repayments will be 9% of what you earn over that amount. If you’re earning £25,000 a month you’ll be repaying 9% of £4000 which is £360 per year and in turn £30 per month.

6)After how many years will my student debt be written off?

30 years

Explanation:whether you’ve paid it back in full or not at all, your student loan debt will be wiped away after 30 years of you graduating.

7)Where does your tuition fee loan money get paid to?

Straight to the university

Explanation:you don’t get to see any of this money so you don’t have to worry about remembering to pay it to the university every term.

8)How much do you need to pay upfront before you go to university?

Explanation: you don’t have to pay anything upfront before you go to university. Your repayments only start once you’ve graduated

9)Can you apply for a tuition fee loan for each year that you’re studying?

Explanation: you’ll need to apply for your loans for each year that you’re studying, but don’t worry, the reapplying process isn’t too long because they store most of your details.

10)Do you still need to pay back the tuition fees you have borrowed even if you don’t end up finishing the course?

Explanation: even if you decide to drop out of university after 3 months, you will still need to pay for that first year of tuition fees as they have been paid to the university already.

Great work with that everyone- I’m sure quite a few of you surprised yourselves with just how much you already know!

Ok, so moving on, can I just get a quick show of hands of who has heard of Student Finance England? [Facilitator should just get a rough idea of how many students raise their hands]

And how many of you have heard of the Student Loans Company? [Facilitator should just get a rough idea of how many students raise their hands]

Now, I don’t know about you but I sometimes get a little bit confused about the difference between the two- they sound like they do the same thing!

Click to go to the next slide if using PowerPoint

Once on the ‘What is Student Finance England?’ slide, click once for the first bullet point

Student Finance England (SFE) is part of the Student Loans Company. SFE is the part of the organisation that provides financial support to students from England entering higher education in the UK (that is, going from secondary school or college to university).

There is also a Student Finance Wales and a Student Finance Northern Ireland which provide financial support to students from Wales and Northern Ireland (there is a separate organisation for Scottish students). All of these come together to form the Student Loans Company.

Click to get the second bullet point up on the PowerPoint slide

The money that SFE lends out to students comes from the UK government, so their loans are not the same as the commercial bank loans that you hear about- the interest rate is very low and these loans do not affect your credit rating.

Click to get the third bullet point up on the PowerPoint slide

The two main costs full-time students will have whilst studying are tuition fees and living costs- SFE is able to provide you financial support to cover these costs.

Click to get the final bullet point up on the PowerPoint slide

Depending on your circumstances, your course and where you study, you may be able to get a range of financial help and support. You could get bursaries (which you don’t have to pay back) and loans (which you do).

So what are the different types of student finance that are available?

Click to go to the next slide if using PowerPoint

It’s important to get to grips with the different types of student finance so that you know what exactly is available to you and what you’re entitled to receive.

[Facilitator to hand out the resources for this activity to the groups].

I’ve just handed each group two sets of cards. One set has 7 cards and on each card is the name of a different type of student finance [facilitator can give examples here for clarification- tuition fee loan, maintenance loan,scholarship etc.] I would like you to lay these out on the table now.

The other set of cards (28 in total) are statement cards that describe one of the 8types of student finance that you’ve just laid out on the table.The aim of the game is to match each statement to the corresponding type of student finance. Each type of student finance has 4 corresponding statements that help to explain what it is.

Let’s do one together as a class to make sure we are all clear. Can all groups see the statement card that says ‘This covers the full cost of a student’s Tuition Fees’? What type of student finance do you think this is describing?

Answer: Tuition Fee Loan

Once students have done this set them off on the task but remind them that a statement card might describe more than one type of student finance so just remember that each type of student finance card only has 4 matching statement cards- no more and no less!

Facilitator to use the PowerPoint slides to go through the answers. Begin at ‘Tuition Fee Loan’ slide and finish on ‘Disabled Students Allowance’

**If PowerPoint facilities are not available the facilitator should print out the slides and give them as handouts to the students instead**

Click to go to the next slide if using PowerPoint

So now you know the different types of student finance available to you to help you with the cost of university- how are you going to make sure that this money lasts?

[Facilitator to hand out the ‘Managing your money- Budget sheet’ to the students (one each or one between two). Make sure students are able to access a calculator].

You’re starting university in a couple of weeks and you decide to sort out your finances. Complete the worksheet to see if you can afford those new shoes that you’ve been wanting!

[Make sure students pay close attention to the ‘How often’ column of each of the tables. It is easy to assume that all the payments will be monthly. This is not the case, especially with Maintenance Loan payments which come in instalments every three months. Students will need to be aware of this to help them with their budgeting]

Answers

1)How much money do you have to spend on living expenses per month?

£887 per month

Working out:

Maintenance loan is £1913 every 3 months

1 month= £1913 divided by 3 =£ 637

Bursary/ Scholarship is £250 every month

Total every month= £637 + 250 = £887

2)How much would this be per week?

£221 per week

Working out:

4 weeks are in a month so £887 divided by 4 = £221 per week

3)How much money you spent on ‘essentials’ every month?

£610

Working out:

Rent = £520 a month
Utility bills = £0 a month
Mobile Phone Bill = £30 a month
Food and Toiletries = £30a week so this should be multiplied by 4 to find out the monthly cost of £120
Travel = £20a week so this should be multiplied by 4 to find out the monthly cost of £80
Books and Materials = £10 a week so this should be multiplied by 4 to find out the monthly cost of £40
Insurance = comes free with your student bank account

So the total is £520 + £30 + £120 + £80 +£40 = £790

4)How much is this per week?

£197.50

Working out:

£790 divided by 4 (as there are 4 weeks in a month) = £197.50

5)How much money does this leave you to spend on luxuries per week?

Working out:

You take how much money you have to spend on living expenses per week that we answered in question 2 which is £221

You need to subtract how much you need to spend on essentials per week (£197.50 )away from £221 to see how much money you have left over to spend on luxuries.

£221 - £197.50 = £23.50

Click to go to the next slide if using PowerPoint

[Facilitator to put up the ‘YES, NO and MAYBE’ signs on the walls around the room and get students to stand up at one side of the room].

With the recent changes to university fees and loan repayments it is important that you know the facts!

For this activity, I am going to read out some statements. After I read out each one, I want you to go and stand next to the sign that you think is the answer- for example, if I say “Tuition Fee Loans need to be paid back” and you think this statement is correct- you go and stand next to the YES sign, if you think it is incorrect, go and stand next to the NO sign, and if you don’ know, go and stand next to the MAYBE sign.

After every statement it is important to ask a couple of students why they chose to stand at that particular sign. It is important to listen to the views of the students and facilitate a bit of a discussion during this activity so it is not simply a one way conversation led by the facilitator.

**If there is no space for students to stand up for the activity, split the class into groups and give each group a YES, NO and a MAYBE sign. Read out the statements and get the students to come up with their answers as a team and hold up the sign that they agree with. Facilitate discussion by asking the groups to explain why they chose that answer.**

Statements:

1)You need to be rich to go to university

Explanation:This is certainly not the case! Get the students to recap over some of the different types of student finance that is available to help them cover the cost of university, make sure that they cover the following:

Tuition Fee loans are there to help all students (no matter what their income) cover the full cost of paying for the university tuition fees. This is paid by Student Finance directly to your university, so you don’t have to worry about remembering to pay or handling all of that money.

Maintenance loan- (previously known as a Student Loan) you can apply for a maintenance loan to assist you with paying for your living expenses. The loan will be paid straight into your bank account from the Student Loans Company, and is assessed on either your household income or, if you still live with your parents, their household income.

Bursary- A bursary is a form of financial support that you don't need to pay back. There are a variety of bursaries available for students; some offered by the University, others by external bodies. For example the NHS bursary which pays full tuition fees and awards £1000 grants per academic year, if you meet the criteria.

Scholarship- a type of non-repayable financial support designed to reward outstanding academic performance or other achievement. Like a bursary, a scholarship may take financial need into account, but generally as a secondary factor.

2)Student loan repayments are taken in huge chunks

Explanation- Many people are scared of student debt because they think that they have to pay it all back in large sums. It is important to remember that Student loans aren’t like regular bank loans.

Get the students to explain why from what they learnt earlier on in the session. Make sure the following points are covered:

Firstly, you don’t need to start repaying what you owe until you have graduated and are earning over £21, 000 a year, and even then, you only need to pay back 9% of your earnings over that £21,000 amount.

Example: If you earned £30,000 a year, you would only pay £810 towards your student loan in that year (which works out to less than £16 a week).

If you earned £25,000 a year, you would only pay £360 towards your student loan in that year. This works out to £30 a month which is actually less that most smartphone contracts out there.Click to go to the next slide on the PowerPoint to use the table to further explain.

This amount is taken from your pay cheque so you don’t even notice that it is gone. It’s more of a graduate tax rather than a loan repayment.

3)Student debt is wiped out after 30 years, whether you’ve paid it back or not.

YES

Explanation- If you still haven’t paid back your student debt after 30 years, it’s automatically wiped out. This is true even if you never get over the £21,000 threshold to start paying it back in the first place.

4)All colleges and universities are charging £9000

Explanation- Some universities and colleges are charging less than £9000- but check their websites. Even if they do charge £9000, your Tuition Fee Loan will cover the full amount, not matter what your household income is.

[Get students to sit back down in their seats].