"The future of College bursaries in your hands"

I agree this is weird, what is someone from the Union doing writing an article in Felix about a College decision? But please keep reading because this really matters. If you are a Home Undergraduate student and receive an Imperial College Bursary (i.e.: your household’s income is <£60k), then I really want to know what you think of the bursary support package that College provides. Remember, that this is only talking about the bursary that College provides, and not the Student Finance one.

As a disclaimer, I’d like to reiterate that unfortunately for the majority of students who might be reading this, that this precise discussion only affects Home Undergraduate students with a household income of <£60k. Also, please don’t think that we don’t know that there are serious financial support issues affecting a large number of the rest of our members; however, this funding package is only targeted at Home Undergraduate students. Remember that if you are ever in need of help and advice then you should ask the Union’s Advice Centre to find out if there is money available to help you. I sit on a working group in College that focuses on ensuring that everyone who is capable to study at Imperial, can. Imperial College provides a bursary package that is quite a bit bigger than pretty much every other University that I have managed to look into. It should, as South Kensington is (unsurprisingly) really expensive, but how expensive?

Imperial College is proposing changes to the distribution of the amount given in bursaries for the 2016/17 first years so that every student who is offered a place to study at Imperial can afford it. They are not looking at reducing the amount it spends on bursaries, but distributing it as fairly as possible. The most challenging thing that I’m trying to figure out when looking through some of the options proposed is: what is fair? Here are some (exaggerated, and generally rhetorical) questions to show you what I’m getting at (and by the way, I don’t have an opinion/answer to these). How much money does a student need? Is it fair to assume that students from a £40k household are financially supported by their families? Is it fair to assume that the number of dependents in a household is irrelevant when distributing student funding?

Is it fair that students from a £24k household receive nearly twice as much as a £40k household? Does every £40k household have the £2k a year to bring a student up to a ‘living wage’? You get the idea. College has proposed some options ranging from “keep the same model” through to “give everyone the same amount”. I have had a lot of conversations and meetings in the last 5 days with the Sabb team, as well as staff and students in the Union about the different options that College has proposed, however nothing is as representative of what students want as an actual discussion with students. Therefore, I’m inviting you all to come and find out what options are proposed, ask questions, and give your opinion. We are holding a meeting in Blackett Lecture Theatre 1, this Thursday at 1pm. If you want to get in touch, please email me at union.president@ic.ac.uk.