Assessment

Applications to the Access to Learning Fund (ALF) will be dealt with according to the Student Wellbeing confidentiality policy. The data requested in the application form is covered by the Data Protection Act and all personal data will be used only for statistical purposes. The data will not be passed to any third party without your consent, except when the University is required to do so by law.

Your application will be assessed following a standard calculation required under Government regulations for administration of ALF to ensure all students are treated fairly and consistently.

Periods of Assessment

The number of weeks used for making a standard ALF assessment varies according to different cohorts.

  • Undergraduate students without dependants - 39 weeks
  • Undergraduate students with dependants and those unable to work due to ill health/ disability - 43 weeks
  • Students on courses who are studying for longer than 45 weeks e.g. year 4 MBBS & year 4 BDS - 52 weeks
  • Postgraduate students - 52 weeks

Income

Undergraduates

ALF guidelines state that we should use an “assumed income” figure to cover elements of your income rather than taking into account your actual income. Actual earnings from part-time work are disregarded to give students the capacity to earn larger sums without affecting their payment from the Fund. The assumed income rate for final year students for the academic year is £565. For students who are not in their final year, we have to include £1,694 as an assumed income

Postgraduates

For assessment of postgraduate applications ALF guidelines state that we should use a 'notional postgraduate income' (NPI) as postgraduate students should have made adequate provision for their support. ALF is intended as a safety net for postgraduates students rather than their main source of support. For single postgraduate students we have to use an NPI of £8,164 and where there are dependants or a disability this decreases to £6,552.

Part-time students

Actual net income will be taken into account when assessing part-time students.

Expenditure

ALF guidelines define two separate elements of expenditure these are known as 'Composite Living Costs' (CLCs) and variable expenditure.

CLC'S are determined by Government to cover expenditure on basic costs such as food, household bills, clothes, entertainment, which ensures that all applicants are treated fairly, regardless of where they study and regardless of their individual lifestyle choices.

Expenditure on rent, travel, course-related costs, childcare and other exceptional costs are excluded from the CLC and are classified as variable expenditure. The University's ALF Working Group meets on annual basis to set ceilings for each of these items based on what it considers to be reasonable amounts taking into account local conditions.