Hardship funds

If you find yourself in financial hardship or have above average study costs, you may be eligible to apply for a grant from the Access to Learning Fund. If you're considering leaving higher education because of financial problems, we encouraged you especially to apply.

Awards from the fund are discretionary, means-tested and may not be able to meet all of your costs. We recommend early applications as funds are limited and can run out. 

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply all applicants must have Home fee status and be enrolled on a full-time or part-time on-campus programme. 

Before applying for the fund, if you are an undergraduate:

• You must have taken out your full Maintenance Loan entitlement.
• If you have pre-settled status through the EU Settlement Scheme and do not qualify for a Maintenance Loan, you must demonstrate that you have made realistic provision to fund you living costs before applying.
• If you are a full-time student, you are expected to have a student account with interest-free overdraft facility. If you are experiencing difficulties in opening a student account, please explain the issues in your application form.

If you are a postgraduate:

• You must have taken your full entitlement of the Master’s Loan or Doctoral Loan.
• You must demonstrate that you have made realistic provision to fund your fees and living costs.

Priority groups

Priority is given to the following groups of students when deciding how to allocate funding:

• Students receiving the final year loan rate who are in financial difficulty.
• Students with caring responsibilities.
• Students with children (especially lone parents).
• Mature undergraduate students, especially those with existing financial commitments, including priority debts.
• Students from low-income families.
• Students who are displaced people, refugees or asylum seekers.
• Estranged students and those with experience of care.
• Disabled students (especially where the DSA is unable to meet particular costs).
• Students who have entered higher education from Foyers or who are homeless.

Yearly application limit

You can normally apply to the Access to Learning Fund (ALF) once per academic year. A second application to the fund will only be considered in exceptional circumstances. Additional evidence will be required

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply you must be enrolled on a full-time or part-time on-campus programme. You must also:

• Be from a group under-represented at SOAS.
• Be undertaking your first undergraduate degree—students who currently hold a degree or who are transferring from another higher education degree are not eligible.
• Ordinarily be resident in England.
• Have a household income of less than £25,000 as assessed by Student Finance England (SFE).
• Have applied for all available funding.

Priority groups

SOAS has many diverse groups but would particularly like to support students:

• from low participation neighbourhoods
• from lower socio-economic groups
• with disabilities
• from black and ethnic minority groups
• from a school with an above-regional average of students on free school meals
• from a school where a low percentage of students achieve 5 A-C GCSEs

Please note that meeting these listed criteria alone will not guarantee this award as they are limited in number.

International postgraduate and undergraduate students who encounter emergency unforeseen costs or unexpected financial hardship may be eligible to apply for a small grant, usually of up to £1000 from the SOAS International Hardship Fund.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply you must be enrolled on a full-time or part-time on-campus programme. 

You will also need to demonstrate that you had made reasonable provision for living costs and tuition fees before starting your programme, and provide evidence of your current hardship.

Priority groups

Students from the following groups are considered a priority for assistance:

• final-year undergraduate
• from a developing country
• PhD student writing-up
• masters student writing dissertation

The Childcare Fund is designed to help cover the cost of childcare whilst you study your programme. As funds are limited, we will not fund the cost of tutoring or other extracurricular activities.

The fund is not means-tested, and provides a grant of up to £1000 towards the cost of Ofsted-registered childcare.

The Childcare Fund is limited and distributed on a first come first served basis, so we advise you apply early.

Eligibility

Any student who has childcare costs can apply to the Childcare Fund. To be eligible to apply you must be enrolled on a full-time or part-time on-campus programme.