A new report from Blackbullion has found that universities’ financial support for students is falling short of what is needed to ensure they realise their potential.
‘Strategic student support: maximising the impact of funding’, published in partnership with the National Association of Student Money Advisers, aims to help staff at unis and colleges to make decisions about blanket awards and scholarship amounts.
It found that just 3 in 10 (31%) of those who have received an award over the past 12 months received £2,000 or above; yet, for a one-off award, they say that they needed £2,517 (on average) for their financial situation to have improved.
Ultimately, whilst two-thirds recognise that their award did go some way towards improving their financial situation, they believed that this additional funding wasn’t completely sufficient.
“This would suggest that the support received was a short-term fix for an immediate problem, not the solution to ensuring the student is able to finance themselves for the full academic year,” stated the report.
“[This] means the risk of negative impact on the students’ wellbeing and outcomes, even non-continuation, remains a very real possibility.”
The three areas where students most need funds are to buy food, and pay bills and rent.
39% of students surveyed have received an award from their university/college in the past 12 months, according to the study, while an earlier study found that students are short £621 every month on what they need to feel confident they can complete their degree.
“Given this, alongside the wider context of student finance funding not having kept pace with inflation, we’d expect students to say that any extra money made some difference,” the report continued.
CEO Vivi Friedgut wrote on LinkedIn: “The student loan isn’t the top of mind concern for students. They are worried about having enough to get from loan drop to loan drop.
“But in many cases, the amount received still wasn’t considered enough.”
Blackbullion featured on our FinTech 50 ranking in late 2023.
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