Participation Bursaries

NUSU is committed to ensuring students can take full advantage of their time at university. We recognise that financial obstacles can arise which prevents students from accessing the activities we offer.

About

NUSU is committed to ensuring students can take full advantage of their time at university. We recognise that financial obstacles can arise which prevents students from accessing the activities we offer. The Participation Bursary aims to remove these barriers to participation by helping cover some of the costs of getting involved. Students can receive up to £280 per academic year. These amounts may change at the discretion of the Student Union and the information on this page will be updated accordingly.

Students can apply for the Participation Bursary online and the form will be hosted on this webpage. The form will be active in both terms during the following periods and students can submit an application at any point in between these dates. To be as effective as we can in supporting extracurricular participation, there will be an extra date in between these periods where applications received before then will be assessed. Students submitting their application before an assessment date will be notified of the outcome within 10 working days from that assessment date. This will be done by email.

Covid Changes

Owing to the recent changes in government guidelines, NUSU clubs and Give It A Go, are permitted to run outdoor programmes. The new Gym and Strength and Conditioning Suite will also open from the 26th of April. Furthermore, we hope that the next dates outlined by the government in their roadmap out of lockdown, will allow for more social activity, for which you can use this bursary.

For this reason, we are reopening the applications form for a Participation Bursary of £50 to be used in Term 3. Please refer to the criteria below to see if you are eligible for this bursary.

Your applications will be reviewed on the following dates - 7th May, 21st May, and 4th June.

And you will hear back from us regarding the outcome of your application within a week of its review.

Thinking of applying?

The Participation Bursary can support you with Club/Society membership and participation costs, funding a club/society trip, and purchasing sports kit/equipment. This is not an exhaustive list. More examples can be found here.

Students submitting their application before an assessment date will be notified of the outcome within 10 working days from that assessment date. This will be done by email.

Term 1 applications are open from 5th October 2020 and close 30th November 2020. Assessment dates for this term are 1st November 2020 and 30th November 2020.
Term 2 due to Covid-19, the term 2 application window has been postponed. Students will be informed when the new dates have been decided.

The application form will be hosted on this webpage during the two rounds of applications each year. Students will be notified of the outcome of their application by email within 10 working days from the deadline.

To help us improve this initiative, we expect all students that are granted the Participation Bursary to complete a survey at the end of the academic year.

Please find information about appealing in this document.

Eligibility Criteria

The bursary is currently aimed at UK Home Fee students that are in ANY year of undergraduate (UG) study AND who meet at least one of the criteria found below.

In addition to meeting the criteria listed in the link above, we seek evidence of extracurricular commitment for the funding requested which will be discerned by the strength of the application made. Applications are competitive and, therefore, we strongly encourage students to address the reasons for choosing the activity or activities you require the bursary for, alongside the submission of evidence that highlight the costs of participating in the activity.

View Criteria

Levels of Funding

There are levels of the bursary for which a student can apply for. These levels are based on the different joining fees of NUSU clubs and societies in addition to other costs a student may incur for their participation.

Tier 1 offers a £120 bursary
Tier 2 offers a £180 bursary
Tier 3 offers up to £280 capped bursary

Our research shows that the Tier 1 amount can adequately assist the student in covering the cost of participating with NUSU societies and other NUSU activities such as Give It A Go and Go Volunteer. However, if a student wishes to join the sports centre and/or a NUSU club, then we recommend applying for the Tier 2 amount. If a student feels that they require less or more than the previous two levels of bursary on offer, then they should apply for Tier 3 and account for these costs in their application.