KING EDWARD VI COLLEGE

NUNEATON

PROCEDURAL STANDARD FOR

STUDENT BURSARY FUND
Approved by SMT: / June 2015
Date Reviewed by JCC: / July 2015
Date Approved by Governors Sub Committee: / N/A
Date Approved by Governors Full Board: / SMT Managed Policy
Date Staff Informed: / September 2015
Date Impact Assessed: / This policy has been impact assessed and found to be compliant with the College’s E&D statement and with most recent legislation
Date Uploaded to SharePoint/Website: / September 2015
Date of Next Review: / June 2018

Student Bursary Fund Policy Guidelines 2015/16

Awards can only be made to an enrolled student who has completed an application form demonstrating clear evidence of need.

Vulnerable Bursary (VB)

Students aged 16-19 who can demonstrate, through evidence, that they meet the following criteria will be entitled to a Bursary payment of £1,200 per year payable in 30 weekly payments of £40.

  • Young people in care
  • Care Leavers
  • Young people in receipt of Income Support/Universal Credit
  • Young people in receipt of Employment Support Allowance who are also in receipt of Disability Living Allowance/ Personal Independence Payment in their own right.

Discretionary Bursary (DB)

Students from families in receipt of a family income less than£22,000 per year will be eligible for discretionary funding from the Student Bursary Fund.Awards will be made depending on the needs of the individual student and the availability of funding.

When circumstances arise that require emergency support, perhaps due to sudden or unforeseen changes in personal or family circumstance, we would expect the student to have spoken to a member of the support structure in College prior to making a claim. The staff member will make judgements or recommendations about the support needed to allow the student to remain in education and that member of staff will provide a written statement as evidence of the need or circumstance.

The Schemes
TheDiscretionaryStudent Bursary Fund would normally make awards as follows:

  • Students can request help towards the full cost of public transport as long as they live more than two miles from the college. The use of the Bursary Funds to help meet transport costs does not replace the statutory duty on local authorities to provide access to education. Bursaries to help meet transport costs should be targeted to individual students where those costs have been identified as a real barrier to that student’s participation.
  • When the financial support is requested for an enrichment activity or educational visits/trips, the SBFmay be used to meet special needs and circumstances over and above that which it would be reasonable to expect the student to be able to fund from their other sources. To be eligible in this category the activity should be seen as making a directly relevant and helpful contribution to the student’s curriculum & courses. We may ask for some contribution and will consider the extent to which there is time for this contribution to be saved by the applicant. We would typically endeavour to award to eligible students up to 100% at the colleges discretion of the amount requested.
  • Qualifying SBF studentsmay be able to claim up to the full cost ofbooks required for their course(s). Claims for equipment and resources required for college courses may also be considered up to 100% of total cost at the college’s discretion. Any resource paid for from the Student Bursary Fund must be considered as a loan to the student and returned at the end of the course for use by other students in later years.Students will be invoiced for any resources not returned.
  • All resources must be authorised by the college
  • Students requiring specialist clothing i.e. Lab Coats as part of their course can apply for support from the fund and we would typically endeavourto award to eligible students up to 100% of total cost at the college’s discretion.
  • UCAS and other HE application fee(s). Certain University subjects require additional costs towards a compulsory test, e.g. Medics (BMAT & UKCAT), Mathematics (STEP), Law (LNAT) – where these costs cannot be supported by other means the fund will consider supporting via recommendation by Personal Tutor.
  • Students may be eligible to claim 50% of travel costs via train/bus to University open days during holidays and weekends
  • In exceptional circumstances help with tuition fees, where these apply, will be considered up to a maximum of 50% of the fees. In such cases the student’s attendance record will be taken into account before making an award.
  • When students become homeless, we may pay the bond for their accommodation if/when this help is requested, a clear evidence of need is demonstrated, and a recommendation from the College Counsellor/ Student Support Co-ordinator(ALS) has been given. We do not pay ordinary living expenses unless there is a short-term crisis to overcome.
  • Students who meet the EFA eligibility criteria for Free School Meals (FSM) through the College application process will be entitled to one meal voucher per day to the value of £2.41 which will be issued at the start of each term.
  • Student attendance will always be taken into account before making an award.

The Student Bursary Fund will notmake awards towards:

  • College enrolment fees. The College enrolment fee is a voluntary contribution to the college funds. There is a college contingency budget to cover a student’s contribution if they are either unable to or not willing, to pay the fee.

In all cases consideration will be given to the amount of available funds and the extent to which there is time to plan for costs ahead. For example, costs arising sometime well in the future such as in the summer term will have a lower priority than those which have an immediate impact on a student’s participation. The Student BursaryFund will not back date payments for claims from a previous term.

There are many different circumstances when a need arises and we try to be flexible and fair in applying the ‘spirit of the law’ to awarding Student Bursary funding. Inevitably, not all requests fall into the categories above and these policy guidelines will continue to develop as cases arise.

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