Half of new students to get help with undergraduate fees

Lancaster University is set to introduce a fee of £3k for all of its courses but it expects half of new UK students will receive financial assistance from one or more of the three support schemes it is introducing. This requires a £1 million investment by the University in its students.

Under the new scheme beginning in October 2006:

· As some students may qualify for more than one award, they would be eligible for up to £8,000 of support during a 4 year degree.

· In an effort to address the national problem of low applications to some subjects, new UK and EU students studying science, technology and modern languages are being offered £1000 Subject Awards.

· In other subjects Scholarships of £1000 will also be offered to high achieving UK students, which are designed to widen participation and reward hard work at school.

· Students will receive up to £1,000 per year of study if their family income falls below a given level.

Unlike schemes at some other Universities, the awards will be paid directly into the students’ bank accounts, allowing them to choose how to spend the money. They could use the money to minimise borrowing or as extra help towards living costs

In addition, to the fees package, the University has also allocated another £250k for additional widening and participation and outreach activities and is investing up to 100k in extending library and computing services for students by creating additional student jobs on campus.

Lancaster’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Paul Wellings said: “ We have set aside over £1 million to directly assist students in a package designed to widen participation and reward hard work. This is a very simple scheme which pays cash directly to students, giving them the choice of how best to use it.”

These initiatives are subject to OFFA approval expected on the 11th March 2005.

The new Prospectus for 2006 entry is out today.

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/ugfinance/