Finance and money are a vital part of becoming a student. Here to help out with this is our Student Support and Finance Officer, Becky! Becky supports students with budgeting and student finance queries, as well as organising helpful events like National Student Money week.
We asked Becky, what are your top three tips for students applying for student finance?
Be prepared:
“Read the Student Finance guides and our UCW finance guide to understand the process better. If you apply early on and have prepared, you shouldn’t have any problems but if you do the Student Finance company or your University Finance officer can provide lots of support.”
Be Organised:
“Budget, Budget, and Budget! You can use the Student Finance Calculator to work out how much ‘living costs’ you will be awarded. Use this to create a budget and check you can afford bills, food, and travel. You can find some great student budget planners online.”
Be patient:
“Applying for Student Finance is not a fast process and with lots of applicants the system can become slow, but it brings you one step closer to becoming a university student.”
At UCW Becky and the HEART team are here to give students the help they need. Becky says: “UCW offers so much support to our students across the whole university, one example of this is the HEART team that I am part of. Our office has an open-door policy, so any student can pop in to have a chat with us about any issues they might be facing at university, and we will make sure they are fully supported.”
Becky advocates for budgeting while at university, saying: “Create a budget plan, it might not sound like the most exciting thing when thinking about university but when applying for your Student Finance it is important, students that do this are able to focus on having fun and studying rather than worrying about money.”
We got Becky to look back on her own time at university. She studied a BA Hons in Artist, Designer, Maker, before going on to a master’s degree in Curatorial Practice. Becky mentioned: “I loved my time at university, it was not without its ups and downs but the chance of studying a subject you are passionate about with like-minded peers has always been a huge privilege to me. Outside of academics, university is a whole experience that gave me lifelong friends and life skills such as learning to cook without fear of food poisoning!”
If you are interested in studying at UCW or have applied already and have any questions about student finance, feel free to contact Becky on finance@ucw.ac.uk or visit our student finance page.
