During my time at university, I’ve had to endure my fair share of typical student hardships. However, one thing I was not briefed about as an eager-eyed fresher was the adversity I would endure as a result of my class background, be it socially, academically, or financially. Still a minority in UK universities, working-class students face the reality of a system which is still figuring out how best to accommodate them. However, recent government research has noted that the proportion of working-class students in the higher education system continues to grow. So, perhaps it is time to rethink how higher education is made accessible for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
Most UK universities offer some variation of a bursary scheme, designed to be a non-repayable grant topping up the maintenance loans of students from households with lower annual incomes. These schemes do not require an alternative application, but instead use information provided to the Student Loans Company to find eligible students, who will be automatically offered this funding during their studies. Bursary schemes have been pivotal in encouraging disadvantaged students to consider higher education; I found myself being offered such funding by my own university, and I can confidently say that it has been transformative for my university experience. However, for all of its positives, I also have first-hand experience of how flawed these systems can be.
Fundamentally, UK university bursary schemes fall down on their simplicity. Reliance on information from the Student Loans Company is incredibly helpful for universities and students alike, as it enables automatic assessment, cutting time spent on individual financial applications. However, this system also fails to take into account wider economic conditions – for example, how many other dependent children are in a given household, debt repayments, the cost of rent. These circumstances can greatly affect the financial situation of a family, as well as annual household earnings.
Raw numbers are not necessarily fully reflective of the ability of parents to support their children at university. In my personal case, I was eligible for a scholarship on means-tested grounds, which at Oxford University is called Crankstart. This scheme is designed for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and involves an annual bursary payment of between £5600 and £6500. However, in my final academic year I have encountered some significant issues with this scheme. The upper limit of bursary eligibility for students in my cohort was an annual household income of £42,875. For the first time during my university life, I had passed this threshold, and suddenly, the thousands of pounds in funding I had been reliant on vanished. This might have been less of an issue had my family been in the position to support me – however, the increase in my household income was so insignificant that my family’s situation is essentially the same as it has been for the previous two years of my degree. They still have two other children to support; they still cannot fund my university living costs at all. But, the nature of many higher education bursaries is a sliding scale of financial support based on annual household income, up until a single cut-off point, after which eligibility simply expires. With this, many working-class students face the harsh premise of missing out on funding from these bursary schemes due to their inflexible nature, and, like myself, are left wondering how they are going to afford to stay in higher education once the rug has been pulled from under them. This is a particularly prominent issue at academically rigorous universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, where students are strongly discouraged from taking paid employment during term-time in order to focus solely on studies.
Further to this problem is the fact that bursary cut-off points remain painfully low in light of inflation and rising costs of living. Many of these cut-offs remain fixed for the duration of a student’s degree, meaning that such external factors as inflation and living costs cannot be taken into consideration year on year when bursary eligibility is assessed. Two parents earning UK national minimum wage (I.E. an annual household income of over £49,569) is enough to push a student over the eligibility threshold for bursaries at universities such as UCL, York, Manchester and Edinburgh. Such schemes maintain an implicit assumption that any financial shortfall after the bursary threshold is reached will be supplied by parents. However, this is not always possible for many working-class households due to responsibilities to other children, rent payments, and struggles with the cost of living. Bursary schemes assume that financially supporting a student at university is equally as affordable for a family earning an annual total of £49,560 as one earning a total of, say, £80,000. With this, while the bursary schemes offer crucial financial aid to disadvantaged students, they also run the risk of leaving some behind.
While most UK universities do offer such bursary schemes for undergraduates, the situation is even more problematic for prospective postgraduate students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Means-tested bursaries are generally not replicated at graduate level, with the rare exception of Oxford University, where the Crankstart scholarship enables students who were in receipt of the undergraduate funding to undertake a fully funded master’s degree in their chosen subject. Many universities offer alumni 10% discounts on postgraduate tuition fees, such as Edinburgh, Manchester and York, meanwhile other universities offer partial, means-tested grants for postgraduate students from lower-income backgrounds. With only 8% of lower working-class students achieving a higher degree compared with 18% of students from a lower professional background, postgraduate education remains financially untenable for many students.
Financial stress is, for many students from low-income backgrounds, just as intense as academic stress at university, often dictating the extent to which students can feel fully included alongside their peers. Having access to grants and bursaries is, for some students, essential to be able to participate in university life. Sports clubs, societies, events, or simply going out with friends are all expenses which the support of a bursary can help to maintain. In an environment where most students are middle-class and receiving parental support, the ability to participate in such things can, and frequently does, come down to class. Working-class students who have to work to make ends meet, or simply have to be conscious of their financial habits, do not have the same freedom to fully participate in university life as their peers. Seemingly straightforward financial concerns quickly turn into exclusion from activities, and ultimately a loss of opportunity.
Therefore, university bursary schemes need to be amended not only for the simple sake of helping working-class students to attend university in the first place, but also to support them in becoming active members of their institutions when they get there.
Further Information about Bursary Schemes and Financial Support at some UK Russell Group universities:
Oxford: offers the Crankstart Scholarship which is means-tested, maximum household income for new students of £32,500. It also offers the Oxford Bursary for those with household income of up to £50,000. This operates on a sliding scale up to the threshold, then is cut off. Students in receipt of Crankstart also get access to unique internship and careers opportunities, as well as a fully funded master’s degree subject to offer of a place. https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/fees-and-funding/crankstart-scholarship/prospective-students https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/fees-and-funding/fees-funding-and-scholarship-search/crankstart-graduate-scholarship
Cambridge: Offers the Cambridge Bursary, which is means-tested for household incomes up to £62,215. This is on a sliding scale up to this point where it cuts off. https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/fees-and-funding/cambridge-bursary-scheme/what-you-could-get
UCL: Offers a means-tested UCL Undergraduate Bursary for household incomes up to £42,875, where it cuts off. Students in receipt of this also get access to a laptop for the duration of their studies. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/scholarships/ucl-undergraduate-bursary UCL also offers Master’s bursaries of £10,000 towards tuition fees for students with household incomes below £42,875. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/scholarships/ucl-masters-bursary
York: York Bursary is available up to household income of £35,000 annually. There is no sliding scale, and funding is the same for all household incomes from £0 to the maximum amount. Anyone in receipt of the bursary is also eligible for the opt-in scheme called On Track, which focusses on building employability skills. https://www.york.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/fees-funding/uk/scholarships/york-bursary/ York Bursary does not translate into a masters, however there is a loyalty scheme whereby previous York students get a 10% discount on further degree tuition costs. https://www.york.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-taught/funding/alumni-discount/
Durham: offers the Durham Undergraduate Bursary Scheme, for household incomes up to £62,410. Specific scholarships can be applied for which are only eligible for if household income is below a certain level. https://www.durham.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/fees-and-funding/durham-undergraduate-bursary-scheme/ Durham offers a Postgraduate Bursary scheme for master’s students from low and middle income backgrounds. This amounts to a maximum of £3000 in a year. https://www.durham.ac.uk/study/scholarships/postgraduate/durham-masters-bursaries/
LSE: Offers the LSE Bursary which is available for students with household incomes of up to £50,000. They also offer LSE Discretionary Bursaries which are intended to top up the LSE bursary if there is a shortfall, or if a student’s household income falls outside of the sliding scales. However, if you are already entitled to the maximum LSE Bursary then you can not be eligible at all for the LSE Discretionary Bursary. https://www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/Undergraduate/fees-and-funding/LSE-Bursaries LSE offers a Graduate Support Scheme, which is means tested and separate from the undergraduate bursary. The scholarship amount ranges from £5000 to £20,000 depending on financial need. https://www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/Graduate/fees-and-funding/secure/graduate-support-scheme
Manchester: Offers an accommodation bursary for students assessed to be from a ‘low household income’ background by SFE. There is no information on what sort of figures this includes. There are only 150 of these awards available. There are a range of other scholarships which require applications and involve incomes. https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/funding/?sort=az&study_level=1&fee_status=1&student_type%5B%5D=1&student_type%5B%5D=2&years%5B%5D=2027#funding-opportunities They also offer the Manchester Bursary, which is a means-tested grant towards living costs, for students with a household income of up to £43,000. https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/funding/?award=manchester-bursary Manchester also offers an alumni discount on further studies. Manchester Master’s Bursary is also offered, which is a £4000 maintenance bursary for students from underrepresented backgrounds. https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/masters/fees-and-funding/masters-student-funding/masters-bursary/
Edinburgh: Offers the Access Edinburgh Scholarship, which is their means-tested bursary and doesn’t require an application. This is for students whose household income is below £33,999. There is a sliding scale, but this cuts off at £40,000. https://registryservices.ed.ac.uk/student-funding/undergraduate/uk-eu/access-awards/access-edinburgh Edinburgh also offers a 10% discount towards postgraduate tuition fees for alumni of the university. https://registryservices.ed.ac.uk/student-funding/postgraduate/alumni-scholarships They also have the Darlington Scholarship, which is open to alumni of the university wishing to pursue postgraduate study and includes a grant of up to £16,500. There are other constraints for applications, however (need Scotland fee status / receipt of Scotland Scholarship, and there are only 20 available per year). https://registryservices.ed.ac.uk/scholarships-and-student-funding/prospective-postgraduates/funding-for-uk-students/university-of