How We Support Our Students

What is the Student Support Fund?

The Student Support Fund aims to remove unexpected short-term financial barriers, that would otherwise cause financial difficulty if left unresolved.

The fund is designed to assist students with unaffordable essential costs (e.g. food, rent and bills) and/or course related costs (e.g. equipment to support online learning), which you are otherwise unable to pay. We know that there are many impacts on students’ financial situations that can arise due to a multitude of reasons, these could be:

• Loss of earnings – either from the supportive parent(s) or part-time work normally attended to by the student
• Loss of family support – regular or irregular provision
• Rent arrears – or forward-budgeting that leads the student to realise that future rent arrears are likely
• Loss of external scholarship funding, or extended periods of study not covered by external scholarship funding – which could also include other bursary funding that the student has otherwise missed out on due to criteria or application
• Requirement for additional equipment to access remote study such as a laptop – especially if the laptop requires specialist software due to disability reasons which couldn’t otherwise be funded via the DSA

The Student Support Fund is available to all full-time current students, UK undergraduate and postgraduate, with international students covered in exceptional circumstances.

For emergency and financial crises scenarios, students should seek support from the Emergency Fund or International Emergency Fund as applicable.

Who can apply?

To be eligible a student must meet all of the following criteria:

• Be fully enrolled on your chosen course before application to the fund, i.e. you cannot be withdrawn or on a study break
• Be designated as a ‘home student’ in relation to your tuition fees
• Be studying on an undergraduate or postgraduate course, or be a postgraduate researcher enrolled at AECC University College, full or part-time
• Be currently in receipt of:
  1) the full entitlement of funding available to you from Student Finance for your region, or equivalent. This could be the combination of your student loan plus a maintenance loan as a typical example
  2) any eligible statutory benefits, such as Universal Credit or childcare grants etc., and you must:
  3) declare if you are in receipt of an AECC University College bursary or scholarship.

How do I apply?

Please email our Student Services team to request an appointment with the Student Finance Advisor for a financial assessment.

The aim of the meeting will be to assist with budgeting effectively moving forward, and if it’s identified that the budget does not currently balance, then the Student Finance Advisor may then provide the application form to access funding.

Email us at: studentservices@aecc.ac.uk

When do I need to apply by?

The fund is open all year round, and can be accessed once per student per year.

Once a student has been approved funding, and the application form has been satisfactorily completed, then the student should expect to receive the agreed amount on the 15th of the month when this has been completed. Students will be notified of any delay as appropriate.