Chester Bursaries Terms and Conditions
Academic Year 2024/25
We provide several financial bursaries to support certain student groups studying at the University of Chester.
The bursaries we offer are:
- Estranged
- Care Experienced
- Carers Support
- Gypsy, Roma, Traveller, Showman, Boater
Our bursaries will be awarded to students who meet the eligibility criteria at the time of allocation. Please note, that meeting the eligibility criteria does not guarantee you’ll receive a bursary.
The full details and eligibility criteria of each bursary can be found at the end of this document; however, the below guidance applies to all our bursaries.
Assessment of awards
Where possible, we aim to complete all assessments by Friday 14th March 2025. This date may be extended if needed.
If you are a full-time student, we collect information about your household income from Student Finance. Please make sure Student Finance has completed your income assessment before 14th March 2025, and they have consented to share this information with the university.
Payment dates
We’ll pay bursary cash payments for the 2024/25 academic year in three instalments:
- Instalment 1: 2 December 2024 (TBC)
- Instalment 2: 21 February 2025 (TBC)
- Instalment 3: 23 May 2025 (TBC)
The dates are the earliest dates payments will be made, however, please be aware there may be occasions when payments are unavoidably delayed.
Interruption of studies
Should you take an interruption of your studies, we’ll stop the payment of any bursary during this time.
Any unpaid instalments will be reinstated when you return to university and will be paid in line with the published payment dates. Any fee waivers will be applied on a pro rata basis dependent on when your interruption begins and ends.
It’s your responsibility (the student’s) to advise the Your Money Team of your return to studies.
Withdrawal from programme of study
If you withdraw from your programme of study before receiving your full bursary award, you won’t be entitled to any further payments after the date of your withdrawal. Any Fee waivers will be applied on a pro-rata basis dependent on the date your withdrawal starts.
Re-admission Change of programme of study
If you change your programme of study (within the same academic year) but remain on a programme eligible to receive a bursary, your bursary and/or fee waiver will be transferred to your new programme of study as long as there has been no break in your studies.
If you change to a part-time programme you will no longer receive a bursary and any further payments will stop.
If you change your programme of study to a programme of study not eligible to receive a bursary, you won’t be entitled to any further payments after the date you changed your programme.
If you’ve re-admitted to a new, eligible programme of study, and have already received a bursary and/or fee waiver for your initial programme of study, you won’t receive any further awards until you’ve successfully progressed to a point where your next bursary instalment would have been due.
Please inform us at StudentServices@chester.ac.uk if you change your programme of study.
Transfer in from another institution
If you’ve transferred from another institution to the University of Chester, you may be eligible to receive our bursaries in line with our eligibility criteria.
Any Bursary will be paid as a proportion of the amount of time you study with us.
Failure to progress to the next level of your study
If you’re eligible to receive support, the bursary and/or fee waiver will be applied once in each level of your study. This means you’ll receive your award once during each academic year (level 3, level 4, level 5, level 6).
Should you take an extra year to complete any level of your studies, you won’t be entitled to receive any award during this extra year.
Placement years
If you’re on a placement year, which is classed as an additional sandwich year to your studies, you won’t receive a bursary payment or fee waiver during your placement year.
If you undertake a year out of the university as a replacement for a year of university-based study, you’ll continue to receive your bursary payments.
Recovery of debt owed to the University
If, at the end of an academic year, you’re in debt to the university for the payment of accommodation fees or tuition fees (including reassessment fees), we may recover this debt from your award.
If this happens, we’ll let you know the debt will be recovered in this way, prior to your award being paid.
Request for Review
Our review procedure can be accessed here.
Removal of a Bursary
We reserve the right to withdraw a bursary from you if you mislead the university about any aspect of your application or eligibility for an award.
We’ll seek repayment of any monies paid to you in this instance.
Overpayments
We reserve the right to recover any overpayment of a bursary and/or fee waiver made to you in error.
If this happens, we’ll contact you to advise an overpayment has been made and agree on the repayment arrangement.
Changes to a bursary
We reserve the right to change the composition of our bursaries at any time during the academic year 24/25.
If the bursary composition is changed, the total value of the bursary will stay the same.
Other information
In line with the principles of good administration, we treat all applications fairly and consistently under the terms we have set out in this document.
We’re required to undertake a regular evaluation of all our bursaries to measure the effectiveness of this support scheme.
To support this work, if you’ve received a bursary from, you’ll be required to complete an evaluation form to measure the impact of the bursary on your student experience. Completing this evaluation is a condition of any award made, and we’d be grateful if you could respond to this request as soon as possible when it’s made.
Bursary Eligibility Criteria 2024-25
The criteria listed below will only apply to students starting their studies in the academic year 2024-25.
Please note, that students studying Apprenticeship Programmes or at Partner Colleges are not eligible for bursaries (except for students studying BSc Animal Behaviour and Welfare at Reaseheath College).
Care Experienced Bursary |
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Award |
£7,500 award (£10,000 if studying at Level 3) paid as follows:
This bursary also includes a 50% reduction in university-owned accommodation fees (should this benefit not be used there will be no alternative offer available).
Postgraduates with care experienced status who completed their undergraduate studies at UoC are eligible for an extra 25% fee waiver. This is in addition to the 20% discount from the Graduate Loyalty Scheme so a total discount of 45%. |
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Eligibility Criteria |
Evidence of care experienced status is required:
Assessments must be completed by 14th March 2025. |
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Exclusion Criteria |
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Estranged Student Bursary |
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Award |
£4,500 award (£6,000 if studying at Level 3) paid as follows:
This bursary also includes a 50% reduction in university owned accommodation fees We may not be able to offer you your first choice of accommodation. You may be offered an alternative accommodation (e.g., standard room, shared bathroom, non-catered). Where our sites offer no university-owned accommodation or we have no more spaces within university-owned accommodation, students will be offered £2,500 towards alternative accommodation. This cash award towards alternative accommodation only applies for those who have applied to university-owned accommodation. |
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Eligibility Criteria |
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Exclusion Criteria |
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Carer Support Package |
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Award |
£4,500 award (or £6,000 if studying at Level 3) paid as follows:
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Eligibility Criteria |
Evidence of carer status is required:
Assessments must be completed by 14th March 2025. |
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Exclusion Criteria |
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Gypsy, Roma, Traveller, Showman, Boater Bursary |
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Award |
£4,500 cash award (£6,000 if studying at Level 3) paid as follows:
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Eligibility Criteria |
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Exclusion Criteria |
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