The University of Law Students’ Union and the Widening Participation team are delighted to offer the Extra-Curricular Bursary scheme.

Please note: Applications are closed for the 2023/24 academic year

The Extra-Curricular bursary is only open for applications in November of each academic year. It is now closed for applications for the 2023-2024 academic year. Please do note that the University offers two financial support funds for undergraduate students to support with employability-related extra-curricular activities. Please find the information below and please visit the Employability Portal or speak with a member of the Employability team for more information:

The Employability Service offers two financial support funds:

• The Volunteer Bursary: a bursary of up to £500 to offset some of the financial burden of volunteering
• The Opportunities Fund: a bursary of up to £200 to cover the cost of employability or employment enhancing activities

To eligible for the support you must be an undergraduate student who pays ‘home’ fees, with a household income of below £42,875 a year (2023/24).

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The Extra-Curricular Bursary is designed to assist those who are struggling financially because of long-term financial constraints such as coming from a low-income household or being part of a specific group: care experienced students, estranged students and refugees. Each application will be reviewed individually on the evidence provided.

Studies have consistently shown that students who take part in an extra-curricular activity consistently achieve better degree outcomes than their counterparts. We hope to enable those who may otherwise struggle to get involved in additional social activities to do so. Applicants can be awarded up to £100 to take part in their chosen activity.

If there are more requests than the bursary pot can fund, then priority will be given to students who meet the criteria listed above and taking into account the following in order:

• Low household income
• Care experienced students/estranged students/refugees
• Students who care for a disabled family member
• Students with a disability
• Mature students or students of a Black, Asian or ethnic minority background

To apply, you must be a current ULaw student until at least 31st March 2024 and have at least one of the above characteristics which applies to you. You must also hold a UK bank account, as we cannot make international payments at this time.

Previous applications

Last year, students applied for a range of reasons. The key aspect of this bursary is that it funds activities that are part of your ‘down-time’ and something that you enjoy doing for your own physical and/or mental health.

• To buy new running / dance shoes
• To join a gym / take part in exercise classes
• To join a class relating to their interests – e.g, drawing, theatre, creative writing
• To pay membership to a choir or orchestra
• To be able to attend a volunteer placement or internship

This is a non-exhaustive list of things that were approved last year. Things that we can’t approve applications for include (but are not limited to):

• Tuition fees
• Travel to or from university
• To add to savings
• Home renovations

How do I apply?

You will need to complete the relevant form at the bottom of this information sheet. The deadline to apply for this bursary is 11:59pm on Sunday 5th November 2023.

The form asks for a lot of information that you will need to complete as fully as you can. The information that you provide in relation to your application will be viewed only by the Students’ Union Manager (Emma Beenham) and the Head of Access and Student Success (Morag Duffin).

With the exception of your bank details, we will not share any of your personal information with any other individuals within the University or externally. Your bank details will be provided to the Finance Department to enable them to make payment to you if you are successful.

We will only use your personal data that you provide to identify if you meet the priority criteria. The application or receipt of this bursary will not be linked with your student record and will not affect your application for any other bursaries or scholarships provided by the university. If you receive the bursary, you will be contacted at the end of the academic year through the financial support survey to ask about the impact that receiving the bursary has had to you.

The information completed as part of the application form will be held on our servers and deleted no later than 30th June 2024. We may retain some anonymised data (having permanently deleted any information which could be linked to you), in order to produce a report on the use of the bursary and to enable to apply for similar funding in future years.

We aim to have payments provided to you by the end of December 2023.

All information we collect will be treated confidentially, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and our Privacy Policy.

If you are an undergraduate UK-domiciled student, apply here:

https://forms.office.com/e/1ijZxbW0TJ

If you are a postgraduate student or an international student, apply here:

https://forms.office.com/e/ChtPpFaJMU

The deadline to apply is 11:59pm on Sunday 5th November 2023.