Eligibility

To be eligible for the University of Bristol Accommodation Bursary, you must:

• be a UK Home fee-paying student;
• be undertaking your first degree;
• be in your first year of study on an undergraduate course at the University of Bristol;
• have an annual household income of no more than £42,875;
• have applied for means-tested financial support through your regional funding provider:
  • Student Finance England
  • Student Finance Wales
  • Student Finance Northern Ireland
  • Student Awards Agency for Scotland
• have given your (and your parents'/guardians') consent to share your household income data with the University;
• live in university-allocated halls of residences (including properties both owned and not owned by the University.
• Provide the University with your bank account details in order to receive the bursary.

In addition, the home address on your UCAS application must be in the young participant POLAR quintile 1 or 2 at the time of your application. The University will compare your home postcode at the time of application to the latest POLAR data (currently POLAR4) provided by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

To remain eligible for the bursary, you must pay the first instalment of your accommodation on 26 September 2023. For the remaining instalments, you must pay by the due dates showing in your financial statement.

If you live outside an area of low participation in higher education but were living in one of the following properties at the time of your application to UCAS, you may be considered for an award, providing that you fulfil all other eligibility criteria:

• Local Authority care (including foster care);
• a rented (or part-rented) property owned or administered by a housing association;
• a rented property owned by a Local Authority.

You should contact the Scholarships and Bursaries Team if you were living in one of these properties as you will not automatically be considered for an Accommodation Bursary. Evidence of residence or former residence in one of the above will be requested, this is usually in the form of a housing agreement.

You will not be considered for the bursary if you:

• have already completed a higher education degree;
• have received a contextual offer because you are in quintile 1 or 2 of the previous POLAR3 dataset but your postcode does not feature in the POLAR4 dataset;
• at the time of application, were living in a former Local Authority-owned property that had passed to private ownership, including ownership by a private landlord, through the right-to-buy scheme or similar;
• live outside, but close to, an area of low participation;
• live outside an area of low participation, but sometimes stay at an address that is an area of low participation;
• live outside an area of low participation, but attended a school or post-16 college with a postcode related to an area of low participation;
• have a household income of more than £42,875, even if it is only by a small amount;
• opt to live in an individual (non-shared) studio apartment at the University;
• are in any other situation where you meet some, but not all, of the eligibility criteria.

Award

The award will be paid to your bank account in three instalments which coincide with the dates you are expected to pay your accommodation fees.
The award will be paid in three instalments of 33%, 33% and a final instalment of 34%.

The University of Bristol Accommodation Bursary will only be awarded for the first year of your undergraduate studies.

2023/24

The University will review the value of this award annually.

How to apply

You do not need to make an application for the Accommodation Bursary. The University receives information about your household income from the Student Loans Company. We will use this to assess your entitlement to a bursary and make awards accordingly. To enable us to do this, you and your sponsors must give consent for the Student Loans Company to share your household income details with the University.

1. If you are eligible for a bursary, you will be notified by the University via email after your household income data has been received from the appropriate regional funding provider.
2. The University communicates with eligible students when the bursary has been set up and is visible in your financial statement.
3. We aim to pay the first instalment of the bursary by 31 October 2023.
4. We aim to pay the second and third payments on the Friday before the dates you are required to pay the spring and summer term instalments.
5. If after being notified of the award you do not wish to receive the bursary, you should contact us to request a cancellation. 
6. If you do not meet the eligibility criteria you will not be contacted by the University.

Change in circumstances

Leaving your University accommodation

If you leave your University-allocated accommodation, you will no longer be eligible for the bursary. The University will not reclaim any bursary already awarded.

If you leave your University-allocated accommodation part way through the year due to personal or medical reasons and return to University-allocated accommodation the following academic year, you will be entitled to the remaining value of any accommodation bursary, up to the total value of the original award.

If you move from University-allocated accommodation into any other type of accommodation, you will not be able to transfer the remaining value of bursary.

If you move rooms but remain in University-allocated accommodation you will remain eligible for the bursary, providing you continue to fulfil the eligibility criteria.

Suspending your studies

If your faculty agrees that you can temporarily suspend your studies, and if you are allowed to continue living in University-allocated accommodation, you will be entitled to receive the bursary for the remainder of the academic year.

If following a period of suspension or temporary withdrawal, you remain in University-allocated accommodation beyond your first academic year in order to repeat some or all of your first year of study, you will no longer be entitled to the bursary.

Changing from studying full-time to part-time

If you change to studying part-time and continue to live in University-owned or managed accommodation, you will continue to be eligible for the Accommodation Bursary.

Change of course or course length

The bursary will only be awarded during your first year of study.

Changes to household income

If your household income changes during your first academic year following a reassessment or other change made by your regional funding provider, you may find that the original award does not match your new household income value.

If your new household income value would make you eligible for a lower value or no bursary, you will retain the original value of your award providing you are not in debt to the University and have made timely payments of any outstanding amounts.

If your new household income makes you eligible for a higher level of bursary, you can be awarded the new value for the duration of the academic year.

Any queries about the effect of changes to household income data should be sent to the Money Advice and Funding Team.