The Student Funding Service offers advice and guidance on all aspects of student funding, including:
- Budgeting
- Student loans and grants
- Postgraduate funding
- Scholarships and bursaries
- Student finance support
- Support to care experienced, care leaver and estranged students
- Financial hardship
The Service is responsible for administering the following:
The St Mary's University Hardship Fund
This can help students who are in severe financial hardship and who:
- are current students at the University; and
- have applied for the maximum statutory funding loan and/or grant to which they are entitled; and
- meet the hardship fund criteria, which can be found on the Student Funding Service webpages
The Fund can also be used to provide short term loans at the beginning of the academic year to students who are in severe financial difficulties due to their student loans/grant payments being delayed, as assessed by the Student Funding Service.
The Fund cannot help every application received and priority is given to the following groups of students:
- Students with children (especially lone parents)
- Mature students who have existing financial commitments, including priority debts
- Disabled students (especially where the DSA is unable to meet particular costs)
- Care experienced and care leaver students
- Estranged students
- Students from Foyers or who are experiencing homelessness
- Final-year students
Students can make an application through the Student Funding Service for an award, the amount of which depends on the student's financial circumstances.
Support available to all care experienced, care leaver and estranged students
St Mary's recognises that vulnerable adults, care leavers, care experienced and estranged students face a number of challenges on the path to university, and we are strongly committed to supporting them to get the most out of their course and university experience.
If you have told us that you are care experienced, a care leaver or are estranged, a member of the Student Funding Service will contact you and make sure that you have all the information and advice you need and will remain as your main point of contact for non-academic matters throughout your studies. They will also be available to liaise with your leaving care team, if appropriate.
You can find out more about the support you are entitled to on our St Mary's Cares webpage.
Scholarships and Bursaries (as administered by the Registry Service)
- Phone: 020 8240 4031
- Email: scholarships@stmarys.ac.uk
The Scholarships Officer can advise on all aspects of the St Mary's Scholarship Scheme. Further information on what the university offers can be found on our external website.