lobby the university to open access to online learning grants to Non-EU international students

Tori Timmins submitted on

Wednesday 30th September 2020

Complete

It has recently been announced through the Welcome courses on Blackboard that the university will be offering grants of up to £300 to help UK/EU students with the cost of online learning, beginning on 5 October. However, this notably excludes Non-EU international students from accessing this grant. Non-EU International students will be facing the same barriers to learning as home or EU students may be facing, possibly more so as many will be required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in the UK and may have to pay at a premium to have the necessary equipment delivered directly to their halls or places of residence via post as opposed to being able to pick the items up in person. It is a bit discriminatory to assume that just because international students pay higher fees, that they will not also be facing the same financial difficulties as UK and EU students do. We should be united as a university community against the challenges presented by coronavirus, and placing a barrier for these students to access financial support to allow for equity in learning is not united at all. If the university was able to offer the online learning grants to all students, including non-EU international students, in the Spring, why have things changed for the autumn?


Responses

Here, you can view the complete set of official responses from the sabbatical officers regarding this submission.

Students' Union replied on

Friday 9th Oct 2020 10:23am

 Hi there,

Thank you for reaching out with this query. I reached out to the University about the Online Learning Grants and the exclusion of Non-EU International Students from these grants. This is the official response:

In regards to your enquiry about eligibility for Online Learning Grants, we are able to clarify for you that the funding for these awards has been, on this occasion, ring-fenced to support our widening participation work which seeks to support students from underrepresented groups who pay UK/EU fees. If further funding becomes available during the academic year we may be able to widened these awards to include support for International students. If you are struggling to access your online learning please speak to your personal tutor in the first instance. We also have a wide range of software available for student to access and you can get more information on this from our iSolutions team.

I hope this answers your query. If you have any further questions around this area, please contact the Advice Centre (advice@susu.org) 

Actions

  • Forwarded to Vice President Welfare and Community

    Friday 2nd Oct 2020 10:09am


Comments

Let's keep this space positive and respectful! Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions, but please remember to keep the conversation friendly and avoid any offensive comments.

Sorry, there have been no comments yet
Please login in order to comment