At the end of November last year, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills announced that the government is reducing its contribution to the National Scholarship Programme by £100M for students enrolling in the 2014-15 academic year.
Despite the government’s sudden cut to the Programme, the University will honour its commitment to students from disadvantaged backgrounds and will be making up our anticipated shortfall of £753,000 from our own funds. This will ensure that eligible students can still benefit from the full £3,000 scholarship in 2014-15.
In reality, the NSP scheme is a minority part of the overall support the University gives to students. In 2014/15, we plan to spend £8m in total on financial support to students through measures outlined in our Access agreement.
The University continues to lead the Russell Group in ensuring that the brightest students have the opportunity to study with us regardless of their background. This is demonstrated both in the scholarships and bursaries that we offer but also in the large number of students that make use of them.