Cuts to the National Scholarship Programme brought forward

Scheduled cuts to the National Scholarship Programme have been brought forward by a year, accounting for a £100 million cut in government funding towards scholarships and bursaries for students across England.

The changes to the extent of the programme, which is aimed at granting financial aid to students working towards undergraduate degrees in England, were announced by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

An open letter issued by the HEFCE made all English universities aware of the alterations on November 28.

The new arrangements for 2014/15 will see a fall in government provision for scholarships and bursaries from £150 million to £50 million.

In addition, the open letter went on to confirm that the minimum value of any award to full time students would be capped at £2,000.

These developments have been roundly criticised by a number of student organisations, such as the Students’ Guild at Exeter University, which stated that: “The Students’ Guild strongly condemns these actions, which will directly impact on the students with the greatest financial needs.”

Erin Davies, the education office for Warwick University Students’ Union attempted to put a positive spin on the changes, noting that all bursaries will now be issued only in cash, undiluted by fee waivers and accommodation credits.

Ms Davies commented: “This is excellent news, as having the freedom to use that money in the way that is most beneficial to you is extremely important.”

However, she added that: “What the cuts mean for Warwick is that we are losing around £750,000 of government money from our bursaries… there will be less money going in students’ pockets.”

The cuts follow on from the sale of the student loan book, cuts to the Job Seeker’s Allowance and the scrapping of the Educational Maintenance Allowance in 2012.

Ms Davies noted that: “I’m not one to get ‘political’, but there’s only so much depressing news you can here before you start to get really angry with the state of affairs in this country.”