Discretionary Hardship Fund

What is the Discretionary Hardship Fund?

The Discretionary Hardship Fund is an amount of money provided by the University to assist eligible students who are facing financial difficulties because the funding they have in place to cover their expenses during the academic year is not quite enough. The fund also offers limited support to some students during the summer vacation.

The main hardship fund has now closed for 2019/20 and will re-open for applications next academic year.
Postgraduate students on 52 week courses that run over the summer vacation may still be eligible to apply to the fund until the deadline on Sunday 12 July.

Those wanting to apply should email hardshipfunds@ntu.ac.uk.

In addition, some continuing undergraduate students will be eligible to apply for limited support from a summer vacation fund, see below:

Summer Vacation Hardship Fund 2020 (Deadline Sunday 12 July)

The University has set aside limited funds, primarily to assist certain non-final year students who are not living in the parental home, either because their permanent home is in Nottingham, or because they are required to remain in Nottingham during the summer vacation for their studies.
Those who may be eligible for support include:

• Students who are unable to take up paid employment over the summer vacation period due to illness or disability;
• Lone parents with dependent children who have support needs during those parts of the summer vacation where they have little or no entitlement to benefits
• Care leavers, former foyer residents and estranged students who are under the age of 25
• Students who are unable to take up paid employment because they have work to complete or other compulsory academic commitments during the summer vacation which must be completed before the student is allowed to progress next year

We understand that some students may have difficulty finding suitable paid employment during the summer vacation, but the hardship fund cannot normally consider applications in these circumstances except from those who are deemed to be vulnerable.

Help with finding work is available from the University’s Job Shop.

Eligible students will be able to submit applications to the 2020 summer vacation fund from Monday 1st June until the deadline on Sunday 12 July, applications will remain open throughout the summer. Please note, due to the limitations of the fund, we are unable to cover all living costs and cannot support students who are living with their parents.

Where a student has applied to the Discretionary Hardship Fund during the 2019/20 academic year, and has been identified as potentially meeting the criteria for support from the summer vacation fund, they will be sent information to their NTU email address, explaining how to apply to the fund. further information and a link to the online application when the fund opens. (This will only happen where students gave consent to be contacted at the time of their original application). Awards from the fund will not be paid until after the end of term.

If you think you may be eligible, you can contact the fund administrators by emailing hardshipfunds@ntu.ac.uk.