Sept 2024 start financial worries

Anonymous #1

Hi there

I've been helping my younger cousin explore her options for university with a Sept 2024 start and shes really concerned about being able to support herself financially. Reading is one of her top choices but the further away from where she lives. It's a 2-3 hour train ride so she'd be looking at living on campus really.

She wants to do teaching with QTS.

She doesn't live in a particularly well off area so I did check to see what polar quintile she is in to scout out any bursaries as I spotted one on your website for UK students, but she is in PQ3 - PQ2 is like across the road from her - mad how it works sometimes....

It's also problematic when it comes to her student finance maintenance loan and grant. As with most households these days, your household income isn't away directly relevant. In her case, her mums new partner now lives with them but does not contribute towards 'her' kids as he has his own x2. They keep finances very separate as he is not yet divorced from his previous wife. So although my cousins mum supports her financially exclusively, the household income is taken into account so she can't maximise the maintenance side of SFE.

My cousin currently works, and intends to continue to work part time with the same company through her studies so that's really positive. And I've talked her though the student bank accounts with the overdrafts and when they'd need paying back and so on. So a few questions please ...

1. Is there anything the university is currently doing to help those struggling financially to get to your Autumn open days?

2. Does the university have any helpful budgeting tools or blogs?

3. Do you think there are any funds she might be able to tap into when at uni? I too supported myself through uni and I remember when I couldn't afford the bus one day, my tutor accessed a hardship fund for me. Anything similar like this at Reading?

4. Plus any other initiatives or relevant advice you have been giving future students and their parents, perhaps around accommodation etc would be much appreciated.

I'm going to sit with her this weekend and go through her expected monthly budgets and try turn this dream into a reality for her. Thanks in advance for any advice and quick links to helpful bits!

Reply 1

UniofReading

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Hi there

Hi Anonymous,
It sounds like your cousin is incredibly lucky to have such a thoughtful cousin to help her deal with all of this! The financial situation sounds incredibly complex and frustrating and I empathise with you there - obviously SFE is somewhat out of our hands here at UoR, but I would advise you to try to get in contact with them to see if they can factor her family situation into account. I'll answer your questions one by one for ease of understanding:

1) I don't believe there is any specific scheme for open days, we definitely have one for applicant days, but the team are super flexible and keen to support interested students so it might be worth checking out this form and asking them there!

2)We do! On our Unibuddy page you'll find some student-written posts about all aspects of student life, including lots of advice about expenses and budgeting more related to UoR, but we also encourage all of our students to look at the Blackbullion courses specifically for finances, these are fairly introductory so absolutely accessible, and also our essentials page in general for a multitude of monetary and wellbeing advice. You can also access similar services through our Students Union, RUSU, which you can find out about here.

3) Yes indeed there is! We have something called the Student Support Fund, designed to help alleviate unexpected financial hardship that may affect student's ability to study or support themselves, so she can use this if she's struggling to make ends meet. I myself had to use this when my laptop broke unexpectedly and I couldn't complete my university or paid work, and received enough money to cover the expensive repair and also the financial short-fall where I couldn't work, and the team were really supportive which was great.

4) Some of the best places for advice other than the Essentials and RUSU pages I've already linked are this page which gives you a feel for costs of living in Reading and this page which advises about fees and funding a little more specifically. We also run regular webinars providing information and guidance on coming to University - you can see some examples here, and register to our Resource Hub here to have access to pre-recorded sessions.

As a student here for the past 3 years and going on to do a masters, I can assure both yourself and your cousins that Reading is a great choice for university in terms of financial support, and despite their encouragement of employability and the multitude of opportunities to gain work experience (which I can tell you more about if you'd like!), the University and its affiliated employers understand that above all, as a student your priorities should be your course and studying, so will offer support in any way they can and there's plenty of channels to access it if needed.

If either of you have any questions about any of this, anything that comes up after this weeked, or just about studying at Reading in general, please don't hesitate to ask - we're here to help!

Best wishes,
Kat :smile:

BA History Graduate

University of Reading

Reading

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