Bursary booklet enters its third year

The student finance system can often be opaque and confusing, particularly for prospective students who might be the first in their family to attend university, and particularly the financial support provided by universities themselves. Each university offers its own bursaries and scholarships, worth varying amounts, and with varying eligibility criteria.

Despite what many believe, this support is often the most generous at the most selective universities, as they are the richest institutions with the most to spend on supporting their students. Despite this, Gill Wyness, a Professor of Economics at UCL, finds considerable evidence of “undermatch”, where students with good grades from lower-income backgrounds typically attend less selective universities than their more affluent peers.

There are a number of reasons for this, but at least some of the difference seems to be explained by students not understanding the financial support available to them - something which can hardly be blamed on them, as the information is scattered across literally hundreds of different websites.

To make things easier, we’ve recently launched a new edition of our Bursary Booklet - an online resource that we’ve produced in partnership with the Sixth Form Colleges Association and SSAT, which provides information on all the income-contingent bursaries offered by universities in one place.

Attending university is a fantastic opportunity: a way to deepen your knowledge and learning about the things you’re interested in; to make friends for life; and to expand your horizons. University attendance also significantly improves your lifetime earnings, with still greater benefits for people attending more selective institutions - so it really does matter where you go, and in general you’re best off going to the most selective university you can get into. Whatever your students want to do, and wherever they want to do it, we hope that the booklet, which will be sent in physical copies to all sixth form colleges in the country, helps them understand the types of support that are available to help them through their university journey.

This article is by Michael Sanders, a Professor of Public Policy at King’s College London and Director of Exogeneity, the social purpose company that creates the Bursary Booklet, and by Vanessa Hirneis, a research associate at King’s College London and Deputy Director of Exogeneity.