University of Wolverhampton committed to helping students

The University of Wolverhampton is reassuring students applying for places next year that it will continue to support the number of scholarships available following Government cutbacks.

The Government announced a 66 per cent cut to the National Scholarship Programme, which is awarded to students whose household income is less than £25,000.

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton, Professor Geoff Layer, said: “This is a real blow to students applying to university in the middle of an application cycle in which 200,000 have already made their choices. It is also a setback for social mobility.

“As the University of Opportunity we are determined that income levels will not prevent a student entering this university. Therefore we will tackle the Government’s withdrawal of support for poorer families by replacing it with our own scheme.

“We will provide more bursaries than last year and more than we planned for next year. Higher education is crucial to economic growth and we want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to participate in it.

“We will make sure our students are protected from these cuts.”

The National Scholarship Programme provides direct financial benefits to eligible students in their first year of study.

At the start of this academic year more than 770 of the scholarships were given to students as they started University of Wolverhampton.

The announcement also means University’s will have to change their Access Agreements, which lay out how they will help people from all backgrounds to access higher education.

ENDS

For more information please contact James Allen in the Media Relations Office on 01902 322003