Money for nothing
The problem with grants is they don’t really cover the living expenses of anyone but a possession-shunning Tibetan monk. The problem with loans is you have to pay them back. The problem with working for money is, well, working.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get money for nothing?
It’s not quite as crazy as it sounds. There are various ways of getting money, if not for nothing, at least for very little.
The problem with sponsorship, scholarships, bursaries and so on however, is that while you get the money for nothing, getting access to it can seem harder than knocking down a coconut with a ping pong ball at the fair.
Scholarships, sponsorships and bursaries (sounds like a firm of solicitors) are different ways of putting the fun into funding. Well, okay, ‘fun’ may be pushing it, but at least they take away the 'ing', leaving you with 'fund'...s.
Studying in most of Britain became a whole lot more expensive in 2006, what with the new, higher tuition fees and the like. But the good news is that, as a result, there's now more cash flying around for students in the form of bursaries. Bursaries used to be difficult to access, perhaps due to their sometimes rare stipulations, such as the University of Madeuponthespot's bursary awarded to anyone called John, born on a Sunday with one leg longer than the other and a penchant for singing sea shanties. However, the Government's stir–up of the fees and grants pot means bursaries are now less rare.
The Government is dangling its top–up fees carrot on a stick in front of the universities but the unis will have to give more financial help to poorer students before they get a bite. In theory, anywhere charging the full £3,145 fee has to slip £310 back to students who are eligible for the full maintenance grant.
In reality, many Universities are choosing to offer a lot more – the Government guessed (
slightly optimistically in Push's opinion) that in 2006/07 the average handout was around £1,000.
The old-school bursaries are still kicking about, dating back to the days when university was free but their tough specifications and high levels of competition means they get much less publicity to stop poor Albert, for instance hanging his head in despair because he wasn't the best jam tart thrower in the land and therefore failed to get some free dosh to supplement his extreme sport.