Bursary
Maintenance funding, also known as bursary, provides financial support to eligible Further Education students to help you cover living expenses whilst at college. You don’t need to pay bursaries back. Whether you are eligible to receive a bursary, and how much you are able to receive is means assessed. This means that the bursary amount will be reduced if your partner’s or parent(s)’ income is above certain levels.
Age Range Bursary Category Amount
16 - 18 Under 18 (Education Maintenance Allowance) £ 30.00
18 - 24 Parentally Supported at Home £ 99.35
16 - 18 EMA Away from Home £ 49.91
18 - 24 Parentally Supported Away from Home £ 125.55
25+ Self-Supporting £ 125.55
N/A Care Experienced £ 225.00
N/A Universal Credit £ 28.00
Below is a more detailed explanation of each bursary type/category.
Please Note: that eligibility based on age, takes into account your age on the start date of your course. Birthdays during the course will not change the type of bursary you are eligible for.
Students Under 18
If you are under 18 and have reached school leaving age, you may be eligible for the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) payment of £30 per week, depending on your household income.
Students Living At Home
If you are aged 18-24 and live at your parental home you can receive up to £99.35 per week.
Students Living Away From Home
If you are under 18 and living away from home you can get up to £49.91 on top of your EMA per week.
If you are 18-24, you can get up to £125.55 per week.
Self-Supporting Students
To be considered as a ‘self-supporting’ student, you must meet at least one of the below criteria:
- Age 25 or over
- Living with your partner or spouse
- Have a dependent child
- You are estranged from or have no living parents
- Be able to provide evidence that you have supported yourself financially for at least 36 months. This does not include any time that you were in full-time education. Financially supporting yourself can be through employment, benefits, and/or holding your own tenancy/mortgage.
If you meet at least one of these criteria, you can be assessed for up to £125.55 per week.
Universal Credit
Most students will not be able to remain on Universal Credits (UC) while studying full-time. However there are exceptions, see the Universal Credit Guide for guidance on whether you will be able to stay on UC. (For further information, contact the Department of Work and Pensions)
If you are not able to remain on UC while studying, you will need to close your claim before you will be eligible to receive any bursary funding from the college.
If you are staying on UC, then you can receive a Universal Credit Top-Up Bursary of £28 per week.
Care Experienced
You are ‘Care Experienced’ if you have been in care, also known as ‘looked after’ at any time in your life. Care Experience could be in many forms such as:
- Foster Care
- Kinship care (looked after by a family member or friend under a Formal or Informal Kinship Care Arrangement, where there was social work involvement)
- Being the subject of a Compulsory Supervision Order (with or without a condition of residence)
- Residential Care, Residential Schools, and Secure Units
- Being the subject of a Permanence Order
If you are classed as Care Experienced, then you can get a bursary of £225 per week and this is not means-assessed.
