Our Access Agreement

 

General Eligibility Criteria and Procedures

 

The University will offer scholarships to recognise scholarly achievement, to promote priority areas of academic activity and to help meet specific needs of individual students. Scholarships are awarded in addition to other forms of financial support and do not have to be paid back.

1. Students who meet the following criteria will be eligible for scholarships:

• are permanently resident in Northern Ireland, Great Britain or one of the other countries of the European Union;
  are enrolled on a full-time undergraduate degree or PGCE course;
• pay the maximum variable fee or are on the first year of a degree course which has an integrated foundation year (however, students on social work courses are not eligible, as additional government bursaries are available);
• are in good academic standing (defined as having failed no coursework or exam at the point of making the award).

In addition the student must meet the specific criteria relating to the particular scholarship for which the award is being made.

2. The University has subscribed to the Student Loans Company’s Full Administration Service and scholarships are currently paid directly by BACS into a student’s bank account through the Student Loans Company (SLC). In order to receive payment of a scholarship a student must have applied to an Education and Library Board, a Local Authority or, in the case of EU students, to the SLC EU Team at Darlington, given consent for their details to be shared with the University and have a UK bank account in their own name. A student who does not wish to take out a tuition fess loan or maintenance loan may apply for a “non-means tested award” to enable the scholarship to be paid.

3. Payment of scholarships will not be made prior to 1 November. Payments may take the form of a single amount or a number of instalments depending on how the scholarship is set up. Faculties/Departments are not permitted to notify students of the award of a scholarship until they have checked with Student Administration (Mrs Sarah Dooley) to ensure that the student is eligible for the scholarship based on the fee being paid by the student.

4. Faculties/Departments are required to supply a list of students who have been approved for a scholarship to Mrs Dooley to enable payment to be made through SLC. To enable scholarships to be paid on the due date names must be received in Student Administration a minimum of 15 working days in advance as the SLC must receive notification of eligible students 10 working days prior to the payment date.

5. For the purposes of payment through the SLC each scholarship must be for a specific amount and cannot be variable. Where there are variable amounts within a scholarship these will be set up with the SLC as separate scholarships. If a scholarship is not paid as a monetary value, for example, is given as books, then the Faculty will be responsible for purchasing the books and arranging with Finance for a journal transfer to be made from the scholarships budget (1311U0011/60143).

6. Scholarships will only be paid where a student is in attendance at the University on the date on which the scholarship is due to be paid. Scholarships will not be paid to students who leave before that date. If a student withdraws from the course subsequent installments of the scholarship will be stopped.

7. The University reserves the right to reclaim from students any scholarship amounts overpaid as a result of students not having informed the University of their withdrawal from the course.