Dear all
Re "in order to be eligible for assistance from the
> Access Hardship Fund (whether it be for a Bursary or an assessed
> grant), a student must have applied for his/her maximum entitlement
> to the Student Loan and have received the first instalment and also
> have taken out a Hardship Loan, unless the student comes under one of
> the HSL exempt categories."
We were not aware of this. In particular the requirement re HSL. In fact
our understanding was quite the opposite and in summer we set up
bursaries from the Hardship Fund on a similar basis to Opportunity
Bursaries ie low income, no he background, under 21 etc but for people
outside the relevant areas for Op bursaries. This was following circular
01/15 para 25 where it is suggesteed that institutions do this!
Though it is very unlikely that any receipient will not have taken SL we
have not required them to take out HSL and it seems rather to defeat the
purpose of providing the assistance to do so.
Are we the only institution to have done this?
I should add that our decision was not for want of reading the guidance!
It seems to me that circular 01/15 makes a distinction between Hardship
Funds and Bursaries (eg the whole document refers to Hardship and
Bursary funds and it refers to "Hardship Funds, like Bursaries" etc)and
I cannot locate where it says that HSL must be taken by recipients of
"Other Bursaries" or indeed New Access or Continuing Bursaries either.
Para 19 on bursaries lumps them all together with Opportunity Bursaries
where there is no such requirement. Moreover it is suggested that 15% of
the total budget should be for bursaries rather than Hardship Grants
which again suggests a distinction. We assumed this distinction was
carried through into the Guidance on Hardship Loans which refers to
Hardship Funds but not to Bursaries.
Did Dfes give any reference in the guidance where this requirement is
made clear?
Yours (somewhat confused)
Wendy Shaw
--
---------------------------------------
Wendy Shaw - Administrative Assistant
Tel 01904 432158
|