Financial help means money is no barrier to higher education
With National Student Money Week approaching next week the Welsh Government has launched a campaign to promote the benefits of university and its new financial package. Abbie Wightwick looks at what’s on offer
PARENTS and graduates are backing a Welsh Government campaign by telling their stories to persuade people that money should not be a barrier to going to university.
All eligible Welsh undergraduate students starting university this year will be able to apply for a new financial support package to help address living costs.
The new student finance package launched by the Welsh Government is the most generous in the UK and designed to give more help towards living costs by providing the equivalent to the National Living Wage through a mix of non-repayable grants and loans.
The new student finance package offers a stronger package of support for students who want to study parttime, ensuring that undergraduate full-time and part-time students have the same opportunities. Wales will be the first county in Europe to provide equivalent living costs support – in grants and loans – to fulltime and part-time undergraduates, as well as post-graduates.
The Welsh Government said this has been done to encourage students from all backgrounds to enter higher education, whether they’re in full-time work, raising a family or have caring responsibilities. Parttime students will receive equivalent support on a pro-rata basis.
The latest National Income and Expenditure Survey shows that more than one third of Welsh-domiciled students have overdrafts, nearly one fifth have commercial credit and one tenth are in arrears.
Under the new system every eligible student can claim a minimum grant of £1,000 they will not have to pay back, regardless of their household income. This is part of an overall mix of grants and loans for living costs equivalent to receiving that National Living Wage.
Grants will be means-tested to support those who need them most. Students from homes with lower household income will receive the highest grant – up to £10,124 in London and £8,100 in the rest of the UK. This is in addition to the £1,000 minimum grant.
The Welsh Government estimates it is likely that around a third of full time students will be eligible for the full grant. Students who receive a smaller grant can access a loan to top up the amount they receive equivalent to the National Living Wage.
The average household income for a dependent student in the current system is around £25,000. Under the new system these students will receive around £7,000 a year in a grant they won’t need to pay back.
The new financial support package was designed following recommendations of a higher education funding review led by Professor Sir Ian Diamond. The review found living costs were the main barrier to going to university.
Latest Welsh Government figures show students in Wales spent 46% of their student income on their course and 37% on living. Housing came in at 18%.
Education Secretary, Kirsty Williams said: “Money is clearly a very important factor when deciding when to go to university, and for those who are already studying, money is found to be a major cause for stress.
“With this in mind, we have designed a new package of support to alleviate these concerns that both parents and students share. This will allow students to focus on their studies without having to worry about how they are going to afford their day to day living costs.”
Student loans are only repayable when borrowers earn more than £25,000 per year. Repayments can start from as little as £30 a month.
The parents
Cyndy and Phil Humphreys from Montgomery, Powys, said they would have done anything they could to enable their four children to follow their dream of going to university. The couple’s children Marcus, 36, Lucy, 34, and Tristan, 31, have all graduated and have good careers while their fourth child, Cameron, 19, is studying maths at Swansea University.
Cyndy, 61, said: “My parents’ income wasn’t high and so I was given a grant when I went to university which covered my accommodation and living costs. I did not have to pay anything back when I finished.
“I always wanted my children to have the chance to go to university like I did, but it’s so much more expensive today.
“Phil and I made the decision to help each of them by paying for their accommodation and helping with their living costs.
“It still meant they each had to take out a student loan to cover their fees and other living costs, but we wanted to make sure they all had the best experience by helping them out financially, but still understand the value of money.
“We didn’t want them to stress about having to work during their spare time to get by and miss out on anything. University is as much about having fun, meeting people, learning to be independent as it is about working hard and studying.”
Marcus, 36, who studied law at Warwick, Nottingham and Cardiff universities, now works as a project officer with the NHS.
Lucy, 34, graduated from Cardiff University with a degree in education and is now a special educational needs teacher in Cardiff, while Tristan, 31, graduated in politics and international relations from Manchester University and is Wales Lead for Coeliac UK.
Former deputy head teacher Cyndy, who now runs an education consultancy, said: “The new student support package from Welsh Government sounds like a good idea in that it encourages kids to be independent and live away from home where you get the true university experience. It means you learn to manage on your own if you have that extra support for living.
“Unless you’re incredibly wealthy, money does matter when considering university as an option for your children.
“In my experience as a teacher I’m very aware of the difficulties some young people face when wanting to go to university.”
The graduate I
Engineer Ilan Wyn Davies, 22, from Bala, Gwynedd, was diagnosed with dyslexia when he was in sixth-form.
He chose Bangor University because it has a dyslexia centre and had one to one sessions, once a week for a whole hour, for the entire whole four years of his degree course.
Ilan’s degree course combined an undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications degree, meaning he didn’t graduate after three years but stayed on to obtain a Master’s qualification so had to fund four years of higher education.
But he says he started thinking
I always wanted my children to have the chance to go to university like I did, but it’s so much more expensive today Cyndy Humphreys
University gave me opportunity. It’s not about your financial background, it’s about your need and determination to succeed Ilan Wyn Davies
At college, they said ‘you need to apply for student loans’. It just hadn’t clicked to me before that there was financial help available Kayleigh Williams
about student finance in sixth form.
At Ysgol Y Berwen Ilan sat the Bangor University entrance scholarships exams and was rewarded with £1,500.
“I also took out the maximum student loan I was entitled to. I tried to cut costs: I was in halls for the first two years of my degree which helped reduce living costs. I considered the cheapest options when I moved into private accommodation in my third year.
“University costs money but whether you go or not should depend on what you want to get out of it. For me it was about getting a good degree and experiencing new things. I made lifelong friends and university gave me the chance to go to Japan to do a three-month summer internship with electronics firm Hitachi G.E.
“University gave me opportunity. It’s not about your financial background, it’s about your need and determination to succeed. The financial help available means money isn’t a barrier
The graduate II
Mother of three Kayleigh Williams, who spent time in foster care as a teenager, said she overcame a difficult family background to fulfil her dream of getting a university degree.
Kayleigh, 26, from Caerphilly, went to the first residential summer school at Cardiff Metropolitan University, part of its widening access programme.
“I wanted to go to university but even when I went on the residential I thought I don’t come from a family who cares about my education and no-one is going to fund me to go to university,” she said.
Spending time in foster care as a teenager interrupted her studies but despite this Kayleigh got 11 GCSEs at A-C grades and a school award for her hard work. But after leaving foster care at 16, she moved around the UK and became a mother.
Moving back to Wales she enrolled on an access to higher education course at Coleg Glan Hafren (now Cardiff and Vale college) where she finally realised money wasn’t a barrier to higher education.
“At college, they said ‘you need to apply for student loans’. It just hadn’t clicked to me before that there was financial help available and that’s how you pay to go to university – that you don’t need to be from a rich background to do it. Sometimes you need it spelling out.
“Being in and out of care, the information about student finance probably missed me.
“That’s when I realised you get a loan, so money isn’t an issue while you’re studying and you don’t have to pay it back until you’re earning. You realise they’re not going to steal your TV if you don’t pay the loan back within a month, for example.”
Kayleigh juggled her studies while caring for her children, now aged two, six and nine, and graduated from Cardiff Met last summer with a first-class honours degree in health and social care.
After graduating she worked at the university’s residential summer school, inspiring teenagers from a variety of backgrounds.
She is now starting work with First Campus which is part of the widening access programme at Cardiff Met where she will work on a project with foster carers and children in foster care to raise aspirations.
She will also return to university in September do a Master’s degree in teaching with the aim of becoming an educational psychologist.