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We Care Bursary 2024/25

Home / Terms and Conditions / Scholarships and bursaries / We Care Bursary

Overview

For full-time students based at City Campus, Sir Tom Cowie at St Peter’s Campus, Dance City, Northern Academy of Music Education (NAME), partner colleges and University of Sunderland in London. The We Care Bursary awards £2,500 cash to eligible students for each year of full-time study, based on academic progression.

Over a three-year course this bursary would be worth £7,500, over a four-year course, worth £10,000 and over a five-year course, it would be worth £12,500.

The bursary is paid for every year of continuous study in four instalments of £625.

Who's eligible?

Students who meet our definition of being care experienced or an estranged student. These students will be eligible for the We Care Bursary if they are studying full-time and paying full tuition fees.

Students who are on a placement year, or a year where they are not paying full fees, will not be eligible to receive the bursary during that year.

You are not eligible for a University of Sunderland Bursary if you have been awarded a We Care Bursary. This is because the We Care Bursary has the highest financial value of the two awards. You cannot receive both awards.

If you are initially awarded a University of Sunderland Bursary and are later found to be eligible for and awarded the We Care Bursary, any funds/credit you have received from the University of Sunderland Bursary scheme will be deducted from any in-year We Care Bursary payments.

Care-experienced students

1. Care-experienced student status (on 1 September of your academic year of entry)

You must be a ‘Home’ student studying a full-time, undergraduate course or full-time taught postgraduate course and you must have been care-experienced in the UK at some stage in your life, and for any length of time, or been in care e.g. looked after by the local authority. This includes the following: 

If you are care experienced, but your personal circumstances do not match any of the criteria outlined above, please contact the We Care Team at care.contact@sunderland.ac.uk or call 0191 515 2216 for further guidance.

2. You must be a 'Home' student paying full tuition fees

The Government classes all students as 'Home' or 'International'. This status determines which tuition fees you pay, and which bursaries you are eligible for.

If you are classed as an ‘International’ student, you are not eligible for this bursary.

Overseas Island, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands students are also eligible for this bursary.

3. You must be a full-time undergraduate or full-time postgraduate student on a taught course

You must be either:

If you are studying one of the following courses, then you are not eligible for this bursary:

Estranged students

1. Estranged student status (on 1 September of your academic year of entry)

This means that either:

You have had no contact at all with your parents/carers for at least 12 months and this is unlikely to change, or you can demonstrate on other grounds that you are irreconcilably estranged from your parents/carers (e.g. exceptional circumstances or assessed as independent by Student Finance England or by a Local Authority because you are estranged from both parents/carers).

* For estrangement cases that cannot be confirmed by Student Finance England (SFE), proof of evidence of ‘genuine estrangement’ would need to be provided to the University. All applications from estranged students are assessed on an individual basis.

Please note – you will not be considered estranged on the basis that you (i) live separately from your parents/carers, (ii) have recently fallen out with your parents/carers, or (iii) your parents/carers are unwilling to complete income assessment forms or support you financially.

Confirmation of your circumstances may be requested each academic year. For postgraduate students, evidence from another source other than SFE may be requested. Should your circumstances change during your studies, you will be required to advise the We Care team.

2. You must be a 'Home' student paying full tuition fees

The Government classes all students as 'Home' or 'International'. This status determines which tuition fees you pay, and which bursaries you are eligible for.

If you are classed as an ‘International’ student, you are not eligible for this bursary.

Overseas Island, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands students are also eligible for this bursary.

3. You must be a full-time undergraduate or full-time postgraduate student on a taught course

You must be either:

If you are studying one of the following courses, then you are not eligible for this bursary:

How to apply

You can apply for this bursary via your myApplication account.

If you indicate that you are care experienced or estranged on your UCAS application form, once you have an unconditional offer with us, we will send you an email with details of how to apply. This is usually at the end of August. Alternatively, if you inform us that you are a care experienced or estranged student via online enrolment, you will also receive an email with further details of how to apply.

For students who apply directly, or via Clearing, if you inform us during online enrolment that you are care experienced or estranged, we will send you further details outlining how to apply.

We will request confirmation from your Local Authority or Student Finance England of your eligibility for this bursary.

If you choose not to disclose your care-experienced or estranged status at application or enrolment stage, you can inform the We Care Team directly by emailing care.contact@sunderland.ac.uk. All correspondence to this email address is treated as strictly confidential. The information you give will only be used within this team to assess your eligibility for the bursary and associated support.

You may apply for this bursary at any point throughout your course; however, payments will not be backdated for previous years’ study. If you are eligible for the We Care Bursary you will also be offered an additional pastoral support package.

The University agrees to pay to you all bursaries and payments that are awarded and due to you whilst you are on your course of study. If a scholarship or bursary payment is made to you in error, the University reserves the right to recover any awards or overpayments from you, the student. This may result in you being asked to repay an award if it was paid to you in error. It is also the responsibility of you, the student, to ensure that all awards and payments received are accurate. Any payment discrepancies will be rectified by the University or the student.

These payments will be made into a UK bank account of your choice. It is your responsibility to enter your bank details onto your myApplication account so that these payments can then be made to you.

If you fail to enter your bank details to enable the payment to be made to you before your course end date (or your date of leaving your course of study if earlier), these bursaries and payments will be withdrawn and will no longer be due.

Bursary awards will only be payable if all tuition fee payments are up to date and there are no monies owed to the University.

If you have an outstanding university debt of £50 or more, you will not receive the bursary until the debt has been cleared.

If you take a Leave of Absence (LOAB), bursary payments will not be made until you return to your course on a full-time basis.

Disclaimer

Every effort is made to ensure that all details included in these guidance notes are correct at the time of writing. They are intended to act as an information source only for potential bursary applicants and in no way should they be considered legally binding or guarantee an award of a bursary.

The University will not be deemed to be in breach of any legal or contractual obligations due to changes to eligibility criteria beyond the reasonable control of the University. It should therefore be noted that these guidance notes are regularly reviewed and are naturally subject to change from time to time sometimes without notice. The University’s decision is final.

Published: 7 February 2024

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