Student Financial Support

Concerned about your Finances?

Concerned about your finances?

If you've got money worries, we may be able to help.

Help with living costs

Are you experiencing financial difficulties and worried about money? We may be able to offer:

  • short-term, interest-free emergency assistance
  • an assessment to receive extra money

Financial assistance is available to support UK, EU and international undergraduate and postgraduate students. 

What do we mean by financial difficulty?

If you find yourself struggling to make ends meet and you're unable to cover essential, day-to-day living costs.

Before you apply for University funding you must have accessed all other sources of funding available to you. This includes using savings and taking out an interest free overdraft if you're eligible. While we aim to help as many students as possible, this funding is discretionary so there is no guarantee that an application will be successful or that you will receive funding at the level requested. 

If you're eligible to receive help, you may receive either a non-repayable award or a loan depending upon your circumstances.

Check out our myth buster to find out more about the funding, application process and the support available. 

Still not sure whether to make an application?

You may feel that there are more deserving cases than yours, and you may be reluctant to submit an application. However, our funds are intended to assist as many students as possible. Our assessment process will determine the level of assistance we're able to offer you.  Last year 78% of applications that were assessed were allocated funding

Read more about some of the successful and unsuccessful applications to the Student Financial Support Fund (UK Students) and the Financial Assistance Fund (EU and International Students) (pdf).

We aim to let you know the outcome of your application within 10 working days where you have submitted a fully completed  application form and have provided all relevant supporting documentation. If we are unable to meet this 10 working day turnaround time we will contact you to let you know and provide you with short-term interim funding if you need this. 

Read more about Student Financial Support Fund and Financial Assistance Fund (Word: 35.7KB).

Further University support and NUSU support  is also available to help with the cost of living.

[MEDIA]

Emergency loans

If you run out money and can't cover your living costs, we may be able to provide a short-term, interest free, emergency loan.

We'll usually only provide one emergency loan in any academic year, and we don't usually offer them during the summer vacation. Emergency loans can't assist with ongoing or long-term financial difficulties, but we have other funding that might be able to help with this.

Before applying, and to find out more, read our 2022/23 Emergency Loan T&Cs (PDF: 132KB).

Need help with debts, benefits or consumer matters?

We don't provide advice about benefit eligibility, debt management or consumer matters. If you need help with any of these issues, contact the Student Advice Centre at the Students' Union, or an external organisation.

Making your money go further

Find out how you can make the most of your money: