As your Vice President (Education & Widening Participation), one of my manifesto goals was to work towards achieving ‘financial inclusion amid a cost of living crisis’. With independent reports detailing that Cambridge is the 4th most expensive city for students to live in, it is imperative that all students have the relevant information to be able to access the financial support they may need.
So, I am very excited to launch the Undergraduate Financial Support Guide this Easter term! This comprehensive guide includes sections on:
•Financial Literacy Support (e.g. how to create a budget & understand your personal finances
•Government & External Forms of Financial Assistance (e.g. student loans, external grants)
•Financial Assistance from the University (e.g. bursaries)
•ADRC Financial Support (extra support available for students with disabilities and other conditions)
•Opportunities to Financially Support Yourself (e.g. involvement in paid mentoring/outreach schemes & working at Cambridge events)
and lastly,
•Non-Monetary Forms of Financial Support (such as Cambridge SU’s very own SUpermarket!)
This guide is intended to go a step beyond the current financial guidance provided by Colleges and the University by:
-
Synthesising all the financial provision information from a variety of sources into a single, unified document
-
Equalising access to knowledge about financial support for undergraduate students at all Colleges
-
Providing detailed step-by-step instructions and additional notes from the student perspective
Whilst the first version of the Undergraduate Financial Support Guide is a general guide for all undergraduates at all colleges, I have also been working closely in collaboration with J/MCR Access & Class Act Officers to create more comprehensive guides which also outline college-specific support (though this is currently still in progress & will aim to be launched for the academic year 2026/27!)
Overall, this project aims to support undergraduate students by removing the time-intensive burden of searching for available forms of financial support, in order to ensure that all students can easily locate the help they need for their specific situation in an accessible and less overwhelming manner. From resources on how to budget and improve your personal financial literacy, to sections helping students navigate student finance and university funding, and finally, information on how to find opportunities to financially support yourself alongside your studies, this guide was designed to be a one-stop shop for students’ financial queries and it is my hope that this guide can be an indispensable source of assistance for all our undergraduates!