Print

Print


I have a student with funding problems owing to a disagreement between an 
LA and the NHS Bursary scheme.

She took her pre-clinicals 2002-05 at St Andrew's University, for which she 
received Student Support, assessed by an English LA.

For 2005/06 she intermitted her medical training (almost certainly not 
relevant to this issue: she spent this year doing a Masters degree in a 
medical subject at Oxford). She did not receive Student Support in 2005/06.

This year, 2006/07, she has started her three-year clinical MB,BChir 
training at the Medical School here in Cambridge.

Her LA now say that she is not eligible for any fee support for the first 
year of her clinical course, because the 4 years of their grant offer have 
expired, and they have assessed her for the lower rate of loan support on 
the assumption that she is eligible for an NHS Bursary.

The NHS Bursary administration say she is not eligible for an NHS Bursary 
until the second year of her clinicals.

This she is left high and dry with no proper Student Support for her first 
clinical year.  Are either of the LA and NHS wrong in their judgments?

On a subsidiary question, should her university fee for 2006/07 be £1200 
or £3000?

-- 
Robin Walker (Junior Bursar), Queens' College, Cambridge CB3 9ET, UK
[log in to unmask]  http://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/  Tel:+44 1223 335528