Support for students who need help with their finances

We know that adjusting to student life can be a real challenge for many students, especially for those having to manage a tight budget for the first time.

Equally, our returning students who may not have been living in rented accommodation for some time due to remote learning may also be finding this year a struggle in terms of balancing student income and outgoings.

The Student Advisers can help in lots of different ways and many first years will have recently met us on Teams as part of the Belong at Brighton programme.

We can check your funding including supplementary grants, look at DWP assessments, help you with planning and sticking to a budget, suggest comparison sites for financial products and tools, recommend recipes for healthy eating on a budget and signpost you to the employability team if you’re looking for part time work.

There are also additional university funds which you may be eligible for, from bursaries to scholarships and hardship funds. Some of these are assessed automatically and others require an application form.

University hardship funds

If you are thinking about applying for one of the university hardship funds and you want to be considered before the Christmas holiday, you need to submit your completed application by Friday 26 November. This way we can assess you and award successful applicants before Christmas.

We can only guarantee assessment for complete applications which are accompanied by all the additional information we require so we encourage you to apply early and read the checklist carefully. You should also check your uni email for any updates or correspondence.

If you submit a complete application after the 26 November, we will endeavour to process it as quickly as possible, but we cannot guarantee an assessment before Christmas.

If you have got any questions about your application, please contact Student Advice on 01273 642888 or email Student Advice. We are open for business every weekday right up until Wednesday 22 December, when the university closes for the vacation.

Originally posted on the Student Advice Service’s Money Matters blog (10 Nov 2021)