Status: Complete

Make fee waivers for high A level grades cash bursaries

The University kindly knocks £1,000 off tuition fees per A* grade at A level.

This may have been a great incentive to do well in A levels when tuition fees were smaller but with the current system it does not matter how large the student loan you have, you will still pay the same amount back, depending on your earnings as most will never pay it off.

The University is effectively giving away the £1,000 to the student loan's company-neither the student/university is benefitting.

By providing a cash bursary, students would benefit from the reward, providing an incentive to study hard and come to Southampton.

Submitted on Tuesday 10th October 2017

Responses

Hi Thomas, 

As agreed, I'm going to close the YMC submission as we're dealing with this over email. 

All the best,

Samuel Dedman (VP Education 2017/18 - vpeducation@susu.org)

Monday 23rd Oct 2017 3:37pm

Hi Thomas, 

I have just recieved the following back from the Faculty of Engineering & the Environment, as this seems to be a scholarship which is specific to them:

*****

This is a merit scholarship and these are awarded by the Faculty for each A* grade or equivalent achieved above offer.  When students enrol, the box asking about the method of payment for fee waivers/bursaries is in relation to the fee waivers and bursaries that are provided by the University and are linked to household income.  They are two separate things.

I have attached the Ts and Cs for merit scholarships below outlining that these will be paid via a fee waiver

https://cdn.southampton.ac.uk/assets/imported/transforms/content-block/UsefulDownloads_Download/B6555E206D44442DA6DD31EDE6CC0F7E/28.03.2017%20Southampton%20International%20Merit%20Scholarships%202017%20Entry%20TCs%20(FINAL).pdf#_ga=2.148163319.1942118435.1508337011-1700710620.1508149317 

*****

Hopefully this clarifies why the scholarship has been offered to you in the way that it has. I'm going to continue doing some work researching the scholarship offer at the University of Southampton, but if you want to continue looking at this one in particular it might be worth having a direct conversation with the Academic Reps for your Faculty. Drop me an email if you want their details!

All the best,

Samuel Dedman (VP Education 2017/18 - vpeducation@susu.org)

Thursday 19th Oct 2017 10:52am

Hi Thomas, 

Following your email I've passed your email to Kerry Matthews (Director of Student Services) who is going to look into it for you. 

I'll post an update here as soon as I have one!

All the best, 

Samuel Dedman (VP Education 2017/18 - vpeducation@susu.org)

Wednesday 18th Oct 2017 1:43pm

Hi Thomas, 

Thanks for getting in touch. I'm super keen to take this forward as something to look into, especially since the University have revised many of their scholarship offerings in recent years (see https://www.southampton.ac.uk/uni-life/fees-funding/ug-fees-funding/ug-scholarships.page). 

Is there any chance that you'd be able to drop me an email with some more information, and then we can work out together how to move forward with this issue.

All the best,

Samuel Dedman (VP Education 2017/18 - vpeducation@susu.org)

Monday 16th Oct 2017 10:18am

Actions

  • Forwarded to Education
    Friday 13th Oct 2017 1:08pm

Comments

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  • Could we extend it to other qualifications as well (e.g. International Baccalaureate)?

    Submitted on Saturday 14th October 2017 18:17 by Bence Cserkuti