Crooked Cash

Every year, thousands of students enrol at university; a lot of them do so irrespective of their parent's income and whether they can help them financially or not.

Luckily, a bursary system is in place whereby such students are able to live out their dream university life without having to worry about being, well, too poor to go. So far, so good.

But is this financial lifeline all that it seems?

True, it is non-repayable, so any 'free money' is of course welcomed, but The Independent recently ran an article urging for a fairer system, whereby all students can receive the same amount of bursary regardless of where they choose to study thanks to a 'national pot' (Alison Kershaw).

Until this article, I presumed that the university you went to had no impact on the amount of bursary received - that you'd get the same wherever you went, but it transpires that this is not the case.

Each university is given the same amount and "with the same amount of money, less socially inclusive universities have fewer poor students to distribute money to, which means much bigger bursaries" (Alison Kershaw).

This is clearly not fair and action does indeed need to be taken.

As a candidate for receiving bursaries myself I was indeed alarmed to hear of such injustice, although after speaking to some friends at other universities, I do appear to be getting a sweet deal.

Is this financial lifeline all that it seems?

Sarah Roberts

A friend, who I imagine is in an almost identical financial situation to me, gets 100% less than I do, purely for choosing a different institution.

Is it cheaper to liver where she is? No. would it matter if it was? No - everyone should have access to the same amount of money.

This is not the only negative with regards to bursaries - people who simply don't need them manage to get their hands on them too.

Another friend, whose parents split up, receives a hefty allowance from her dad while her mother lives off the cream of her divorce and so doesn't work.

As my friend is technically from a one parent family, an unemployed one at that, she is entitled to every penny that I get, despite us living financial light-years away from one another.

Is there an answer to stopping this? Not really. But it's still is a sad day when one friend is living off Lidl produce while the other is a Harvey Nicks regular.