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What is the Estranged Student/VYP Bursary?

The decision to attend university is a big one for anyone – more so if you don’t have family support.  Estranged students are young people studying without the support and approval of a family network.

If you meet the following criteria, we may be able to provide additional wellbeing and a £1000 financial bursary to help you whilst you study; 

  •  be under the age of 25 on the first day of your course
  •  be studying a full-time or part-time undergraduate course 
  •  have been assessed as independent by Student Finance England or equivalent funding body

We can also help with your application to Student Finance England if you are finding it difficult to prove your estrangement.  

If you are in financial hardship or would like to see if you qualify for further support, please complete an application for our Hardship Fund.

For more information about this bursary and eligibility criteria, please click on the links below:

You MUST disclose your status as an estranged student via the application form to be considered for the Estranged Student/VYP Bursary. 

Eligibility for the Estranged Student/Vulnerable Yong Persons bursary

In order to be eligible for the Estranged Student/VYP Bursary, you must meet the following criteria;

  • You must be under 25 years of age on the first day of your course
  • You must be studying a full-time Undergraduate course
  • You must have been assessed as ‘independent’ by Student Finance England (or an equivalent funding body)

Residency

The Estranged Student/VYP Bursary is for UK/Home students registered on a full time Undergraduate course. A UK/Home student is defined as a person who meets certain residency conditions (the same conditions apply to eligibility for external student funding support, for example, the maintenance loan). Usually this means you have an unrestricted right to enter and remain in the UK, and you have been ordinarily resident in the UK for four years prior to the start of your course. None of this time must have been wholly or mainly for the purpose of receiving full time education.

Overseas and EU students who are eligible for tuition fee support will not be eligible for the Estranged Student/VYP Bursary. For further information on support available if you are an EU or Overseas Student please contact The Student Union Advice and Representation Centre or The <i> Student Information and Support Centre

Student Union Advice and Representation Centre Email: SUAdvice@uclan.ac.uk / Telephone: 01772 89 4000

The <i> Student information and Support Centre Email: Thei@uclan.ac.uk / Telephone: 01772 89 5000

Unfortunately, students on Degree Apprenticeship courses are not eligible to apply for the Estranged Student/VYP Bursary. We recommend that you contact the Students Union Advice Centre for further advice about any additional financial support that may be available. 

How the Bursary is assessed

All students will be asked to declare their status as an Estranged student when they complete their online enrolment at the start of each academic year. All estranged students are supported by our Wellbeing team and one of their advisors will contact every student that declares their estrangement at enrolment to advise them about the support available and to ask them to complete our online disclosure form.

If you need to disclose your estrangement after you have completed online enrolment, please do so as soon as possible via the disclosure form.

If estrangement is declared more than 9 months after the first day of a student’s course, they will not be eligible for the Estranged Student/VYP bursary in that particular academic year. These students will still be able to access other types of support through our Wellbeing team.

Application Processing Times

The first Estranged Student/VYP bursary payments will be made week commencing 5 October 2020 and we will run a payment list each week up until week commencing 28 June 2021 for students that declare their estrangement after enrolment.

Estrangement disclosures are managed and processed by our Wellbeing team. Please visit the Wellbeing Team's webpages for more information about the disclosure process. Students that are eligible to apply for the Estranged Student/VYP bursary can submit an application for support once per academic year and must reapply and provide evidence each year of their studies to be considered for continued support.


For Financial Support Enquiries:
Telephone: 01772 895000 / Email: thei@uclan.ac.uk