SU response to Government £50 million increase in hardship funding

Thursday 11-02-2021 - 13:22

Over the past week, alongside other Liverpool Student Unions, our President has been leading on a letter to Government in response to their lacklustre £50 million input for hardship funding announced by the Office for Students last week.

As representatives, we categorically believe £50 million is not enough; and with almost 2.5 million students in England, it only equates to £24 per student. With over 36 signatures across 18 different Unions, this letter addressed to Government Ministers and Secretaries, asks for more targeted intervention from Government around tuition fees and accommodation rent rebates.

Read the letter here...

 

Michelle Donelan MP, Minister of State for Universities

Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE MP, Secretary of State for Education

Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government

 

Dear Secretaries of State & Minister of State,

 

RE: Students’ Unions response to £50m increase in hardship funding

 

We write to you as a body of student representatives to ask the government for a revised support package for students.

 

We are thankful for the recent increase in hardship funding.  Alongside the continued hard work of universities and their staff, this will make a genuine difference to students. However, the size of the financial support currently provided does not reach far enough.

 

Since the start of the pandemic, students, representatives and university leaders have been pleading with the government for an adequate and coherent support framework largely accounting for: tuition fee refunds, student debt write off, accommodation rebates and hardship funding. Whilst we are grateful for the increase, we firmly believe this does not go far enough and is frustrating to see it as the only means of support currently available to students.


Government recognises that many students are employed in precarious zero-hours contracts and are not currently being financially supported by their employers. Many students naturally choose to work in order to subsidise the cost of living - commonly in the hospitality and catering sectors which have experienced the most disruption. These students have not had access to income from these jobs that they have relied upon in previous years, and are unable to access other forms of government support (e.g. Universal Credit), therefore the government must help.

 

The £50m offered by the government, in theory, will only go to those in absolute hardship and fails to recognise the injustice of a large body of students who are still subject to the obligation of paying their accommodation contracts. When asked about what support is available to students, ministers consistently refer to this extra funding as a way to address these concerns and complaints. However, in practice, this is not how it has worked: some of our institutions have not seen a significant enough increase in their hardship fund applications to reflect this increase despite this extra funding.

 

When we have almost 2.5 million students across over 100 Universities in England, this funding only equates to around £24 per student. If we assume a minimum of a quarter (625,000) live in student accommodation, and half of these students (312,500) aren’t allowed to return, this translates to £160 of support. £160 per student paying upwards of £2,000 (per semester) for a room which they are advised not to return to. If this funding is the government’s way of supporting them, we do not think this is this enough. It is clear this funding is not designed to absolve students who wish to leave their accommodation, especially where the Government has advised that they remain at home.

 

As representatives, we feel it is an injustice for the government to continuously justify the increases in hardship funding as a response to their effort to support students. We implore you to reconsider the support package for students. The Prime Minister himself has said during briefings that he believes the government needs to look at this, so we ask you again, please support our students.  Earlier last month we saw the Welsh government offer an extra £40m of funding, a proportionate comparison which would see an equivalent of £700m from the English government.

 

Since the start of the pandemic, we have seen the government rightfully provide bailout packages to businesses who have been impacted by the pandemic. Over the years, we have also increasingly seen students referred to as consumers, and undoubtedly, the government restrictions have impacted the consumer experience so we would expect the government to have a broader package of intervention for students, as customers, who are paying over £9250 for an experience significantly different to that of previous years.

 

Universities have been forced to follow government guidance and as such in some cases – by no fault of the institution, the experience has not been the expected standard.  It is not appropriate for government to expect providers to be responsible for paying their own refunds as universities, just like other organisations, must continue to meet their own overheads and support their staff.

 

The UK's higher education sector is an asset which we should be immensely proud of and we should support to protect this interest for the future. Over 2.5 million students today are active and contributing members of society. In the future, they are our heroes in the NHS, our future key-workers, our start-up business leaders, and our artists that will be plugging the cultural deficit caused through this pandemic - and they are looking to you. We should be protecting them, and in your role as minister or secretary, championing and looking out for them.

 

We ask that you ensure students are listened to and given the choice to have reduced tuition fees, tuition fee compensation or other financial packages to support them through this pandemic. Students deserve the right to achieve the grades they deserve, and this must be without financial detriment due to the ongoing pandemic.

 

Therefore we, again, ask you to really look at the offer for these students, and urgently ask you to introduce:

 

  • A tuition fee refund or debt write off of at least two thirds for this academic year for students: for self-funded students, they should be refunded in cash, for their fees;
  • A designated pot of money that goes to any student who has not been able to move back to their term time address; or
  • A comprehensive financial package for both student accommodation providers and landlords to provide refunds themselves directly

 

As representatives, it is not for us to determine the process in which these refunds are allocated, rather just that we advocate for the allocation of these refunds to be made - as long as the money is back in the pockets of students, we are not concerned with how. We reiterate our belief that this funding needs to come directly from the government in its continued support and protection for students and education as a whole.

 

We look forward to hearing from you.

 

Signed,

 

Lila Tamea 

President 

Liverpool John Moores Students’ Union 

Emily Roxbee Cox 

Vice President (Activities) 

Liverpool John Moores Students’ Union 

Megan Hill 

Vice President (Community) 

Liverpool John Moores Students’ Union 

Tuba Shahzad 

Vice President (Academic Quality) 

Liverpool John Moores Students’ Union 

Harry Pearce 

President 

Liverpool Hope University Students’ Union  

Oliver Smith 

Vice President (Sport & Activities) 

Liverpool Hope University Students’ Union 

Sally Wills 

Vice President (Welfare & Community) 

Liverpool Hope University Students’ Union 

Adnan Hussain 

President  

University of Liverpool Guild Of Students 

Imogen De Castro Grey 

Deputy President 

University of Liverpool Guild Of Students 

Chloe Field 

Vice President 

University of Liverpool Guild Of Students 

Ffion Thomas 

Vice President 

University of Liverpool Guild Of Students 

Salma Hussain 

President 

King’s College London Students’ Union 

Ansh Sachdeva  

President  

Bolton Students’ Union 

Zuleikha Chikh 

President

University of Central Lancashire Students’ Union 

Saqlain Riaz   

President  

City, University of London Students’ Union 

Ruqaiyah Javaid 

Vice President (Education) 

City, University of London Students’ Union 

Shaima Dallali   

Vice President (Community & Wellbeing) 

City, University of London Students’ Union 

Dr Purnur Altay 

President

York Graduate Students’ Association 

Emily Lucy King 

President 

Heriot-Watt University Students’ Union 

Lara Stroudinsky 

Vice President (Wellbeing) 

Heriot-Watt University Students’ Union 

Alexander Hedlund 

Vice President (Education) 

Heriot-Watt University Students’ Union 

Colin Shaun Aitken 

Vice President 

(Community) 

Heriot-Watt University Students’ Union 

Lizzie Rodulson 

President 

Surrey Students’ Union

Izzy Watkins 

Vice President (Voice) 

Surrey Students’ Union 

Theo Donnelly 

Vice President (Community) 

Surrey Students’ Union 

Seun Twins 

President 

Durham Students’ Union 

Mia Nembhard 

President 

Uni of Leicester Students’ Union 

Niamh Moore 

Education President 

St Mary’s University Students’ Union 

Masia Ward  

Sport President 

St Mary’s University Students’ Union 

Charlie Canning 

Student Life President

St Mary’s University Students’ Union 

Louise Hall 

President 

Arts University Bournemouth Students’ Union 

Naomie Lebe  

President 

Bournemouth University Students’ Union 

Sunday Blake 

President 

University of Exeter Students’ Guild 

Augusta Nnajiofor 

President 

The Students’ Union at University of West England, Bristol 

Jane Ojiako  

Vice President (Education) 

The Students’ Union at University of West England, Bristol 

Megan Ball 

President 

Winchester Students’ Union 

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