Oxbridge Making Money

Both Oxford and Cambridge don't let you work whilst you attend there but I don't come from a particularly well off background and I'm worried I won't be able to attend as my parents can't afford to help me and I haven't got a lot of savings.
Any tips from previous students?

Reply 1

Anonymous #2

Are you a UK student? Undergrad or postgrad?
I was in the same position (I actually was contributing money to my household bills to keep us afloat!) and here's my experience. If you're a UK undergrad, you should be able to get Student Finance to cover your tuition fees and some of your living costs. I was in the highest bracket for SFE entitlement, so I got the maximum amount for the maintenance loan which was about £9k a year. On top of that, at Oxford at least, there are two bursaries for undergrads (Crankstart and a general Oxford one - you can only choose one), from which I got a few extra thousand a year. You're allowed to work during the holidays, which I did, and because the Oxford terms are so short that means you have about 5 months in the year where you're not in the city studying. If you work during those you can get a few extra thousand as well. The careers service at Oxford is very good, and you can get funded internships depending on what field you're in. It was some work, and it's not like I could just spend on whatever I wanted all the time, but it was certainly doable and I lived fine to be honest. I imagine Cambridge is quite similar.
And if you ever fall into severe hardship, there are hardship funds at most, if not all, colleges that you can turn to for help.

Reply 2

Username123ab

I’m a working class Oxford student. You should get the maximum maintenance loan which covers a fair bit of your expenses. Also them not letting you work is treated pretty loosely, most people I know tutor or walk dogs for money (posh people will pay you £20+ an hour for either of those lol). Also I lot of people (myself included) work in shops or restaurants over summer to save up. You should also get a bursary if your household income is less than ~£45,000.

Reply 3

eeeli

Original post by Anonymous

as others have said, needs based bursaries and scholarships exist and are based on the student finance income assessment, don't know what these are like at Cambridge but I had Crankstart at Oxford and it was very generous - with that plus full student loan you'd probably be fine without needing to work. You can also work during vacations and they're pretty long so temp jobs for Xmas or summer are very doable. You can also do some work in term time, e.g. online tutoring - unless your college is really really strict I don't think they'd care if you do a few hours of tutoring each week as long as your work isn't affected. Oxford also has student ambassadors for their undergraduate admissions and outreach service that they recruit each year. If you become one you can take on lots of short term work opportunities like staffing open days, delivering outreach events and running the UNIQ residential which is very rewarding work and pays fairly well too so I'd recommend applying to become one if you end up at Oxford. There's also similar opportunities for occasional paid outreach work at a college level. Not sure if Cambridge does something similar unfortunately!

Reply 4

xyz1234567

Oxford is actually one of the most affordable places to study, because of the short terms (fewer weeks of rent, more time to work), subsidised accommodation and food, and the fact that colleges usually have very generous student support schemes. Do you have a place yet? If so, I’d advise talking to your college about your worries - you may be pleasantly surprised at how much financial assistance you can get.
As others have said there are paid work opportunities offered by the colleges, eg outreach events, telethons, offering technical help during admissions.