Maintenance Grants and Maintenance Loans are the monetary support that the UK government provides to its eligible students. Your household’s income and the date your course began to determine how much of a Maintenance Grant you can receive.
Depending on when you began your course, where you live, and your household income, you can receive a different amount. You must inform the authorities immediately if your living situation changes because it will have an impact on your student loan funding. This will allow them to ensure that you receive the appropriate amount of student aid. Any modifications can be updated in your online account.
The University of the West of England’s vice chancellor, Steve West, stated during the Universities UK annual conference in Leicester that the new government – “needs to face up to the cost of living crisis now faced by students and staff. It is hitting them hard”.
The maximum maintenance loan available to students in England this year, according to West, the UUK president, will be £1,000 less than a job paying the national minimum wage, the biggest difference between the two since 2004. This will make higher education even more out of reach for those from low-income backgrounds.
For students from homes making up to £25,000 a year, the maximum support loan is now £9,706 for studying outside of London and living away from home.
In some cases, the Maintenance Grant is replaced by the Special Support Grant. The Special Support Grant is calculated in the same way as the Maintenance Grant by Student Finance England.
Maintenance Loans are not all that different; a maintenance loan can assist with the cost of items like rent, groceries, books, transportation, and other expenses. Any loan you take out must be paid back, but not until you’ve finished or dropped out of school and your income is sufficient to cover repayment.
You will receive a smaller Maintenance Loan in your final year of college or university than you did in previous years. Because breaks between each year are typically covered by student finance, you are no longer eligible for it after your course has concluded.
While universities “have once again stepped up to support students,,” West stated that short-term assistance was not a substitute for long-term support.
“We also need the government to take action. In our conversations with new cabinet members and ministers in the coming weeks, we will urge them to provide additional government money for hardship funding and reinstate maintenance grants for those most in,” West stated.
“Failure to engage with this will lead to significant health and wellbeing challenges as well as educational impacts.”
As inflation undermined their income from tuition fees, according to West, university officials also needed to make a case for sustainable financing in order to educate their students.
“Universities are already doing more with less. We have all invested significantly in rising pay and pensions costs, digital innovations to enhance learning and modernised facilities to meet student demand. We have all also invested significantly in support for student mental health and wellbeing to keep pace with demand,” West said.
“I, of course, recognise that this government has many spending priorities that are urgent and pressing. But it is vital that we start to move forward on this issue.”
Vice-chancellors in attendance were informed by Vivienne Stern, UUK’s incoming chief executive, that they were currently dealing with serried ranks of policy difficulties.
“ I could list them, but I’d just depress you,” Stern stated.
Stern said the new government’s spending review was a potential concern for research funds, particularly funding a successor for the UK’s membership in the EU’s £80 billion Horizon Europe research programme. Stern cautioned that the Treasury is not really anxious about universities.
The conference heard the findings of a recent study on perceptions of UK universities. More than 2,000 persons participated in the survey, which revealed that worries about colleges were not front of mind, with the public being more concerned about inadequate funding for education.
Debt, according to Holly Wicks of BritainThinks, which conducted polling and focus groups for the study, is the word that people most frequently associated with higher education. According to earlier research conducted in 2018, expensive was the term most frequently mentioned. According to the survey, 61% of parents, down from 66% in 2018, would encourage their kids to attend college.