Just checked and they're out now.
http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/Students/986.aspx
Thanks for letting us know.
Gawdammit, my uni (Birmingham) will be charging £360 more in tuition fees than the bursary will cover for the MA! How very dare they!
(shouldn't really complain at all that potential funding though should I!)
How do you know what your uni charge, and what the funding will cover?
Birmingham state what the fees are on the info page for the MA on the website (not all the unis do this). If you follow the link above and open the application pack, the first section is all about what the bursary offers - for full time UK home students in England (outside of London) its £3,362.50 basic, up to £2,608 income assessed top up, and they will then pay up to £3,390 direct to the uni for your fees.
So since bham state their fees are £3750 I'm assuming I'll be making up the difference.
Not the end of the world really...
Thanks for letting us know. I shall be feeling the form very soon. I am so glad that my uni charges only £3300 and i can have money to pay for my rent and also for foods. Does that mean we get addidtional money for our placement travel expenses?
I can't wait to start!
Sugarbabz,
The bursary includes an amount for travelling to/from placement, but travel when on placement (such as to service users etc) should be paid for by the agency.
I completed my form and sent it off and it cost over £10 in postage! £5.40 for special delivery to return my birth cert and £5.40 to send the whole form and contents.. Grr.. I hope I get a good bursary after that!
Does everyone have to send their birth certificate? I had a read through and didn't think I had to send it. I will have to post my financial notification from student finance when it arrives so I will have to pay return postage on that, I'm not sure it's even worth it because it's a peice of paper so why pay return postage on something worth nothing. Anyway I hope the social work bursary is something which is easy to sort out - I'm having a right nightmare with student finance at the moment - it's driving me absolutely insane!!
Hi
Think it depends on if your doing MA or BA. Im doing BA and only needed to send student finance notification. I rang them last year and they said no dont send original just send photo copy. I did this and had no problems getting bursary. As was a photocopy didnt have to worry about sending it back to me.
The MA bursary is different because its income assessed and you get lots of little extra bits.
So really depends on which course your doing.
Ceci
Student Social Worker
Thanks Ceci - I had another read through and it says not to send birth certificate unless requested. If they lost my financial notification I would probably be able to get a replacement from student finance anyway but if I can send a photocopy in that would obviously be much better. How long did it take to deal with your social work bursary?
K
Ceci: Hi Think it depends on if your doing MA or BA. Im doing BA and only needed to send student finance notification. I rang them last year and they said no dont send original just send photo copy. I did this and had no problems getting bursary. As was a photocopy didnt have to worry about sending it back to me. The MA bursary is different because its income assessed and you get lots of little extra bits. So really depends on which course your doing. Ceci
I posted my bursary application today for MA, i also paid over £10 for the posting and returning of my document. I included my passport, i hope they won't ask for additional information as it's expensive to post. Most things are expensive nowadays, it must be the recession.
The price of postage went up this month, or last month?? It's probably worth it if it means getting compensation if it's lost in the post. Passports cost a lot of money!! But yes postage is very expensive. I was going to post my CRB forms but it was going to cost around £10 to post and return my documents so I drove to university instead, probably cost me a few pounds in petrol. Haven't sent off my social work bursary yet so I need to get cracking on that asap!!
They were quiet quick to deal with my application. Because of the mess with Student finance i didnt get my notification until quite late, but I sent form in anyway and they processed most of it and as soon as i got the notification in I got a letter about 2 weeks later.
Dont wait for the notificaton if you havent got it yet send it in first as i did and they do all the preliminarys and then it doesnt take long. If they say you need to send original always photocopy/scan it so you have something for your records.
Are you doing BA or MA?
I'm going to have to delay applying for the bursary until I've applied for my CRB, which worries me a little - at some point I've managed to lose my original birth certificate, so I'm going to have to use my passport for both forms. For first time applicants of the MA bursary they need proof of nationality. My last CRB took 8 months to process (!) and my uni will only accept postal applications, not in person :o(
I do have a provisional driving licence which I could use for my CRB if I really wanted to - but despite being 27 this year I still get ID'd regularly, so I don't want to have to send off all my proof of age documents at once! Ridiculous but true!
I'm having to wait until pay day to send my application and documents off, as I just can't afford the postage until then! how pathetic, haha.
Thanks for the info, I'll try and fix my printer today and send the form off. My student finance is looking more positive - they found my documents so just need to fill out an extra form and hopefully my application will be processed. I will definately photocopy the documents before I send them. I'm moving house soon so wanted to get it all sorted before. I'm doing the BA. Where are you studying?
Ceci: They were quiet quick to deal with my application. Because of the mess with Student finance i didnt get my notification until quite late, but I sent form in anyway and they processed most of it and as soon as i got the notification in I got a letter about 2 weeks later. Dont wait for the notificaton if you havent got it yet send it in first as i did and they do all the preliminarys and then it doesnt take long. If they say you need to send original always photocopy/scan it so you have something for your records. Are you doing BA or MA? Ceci
Velma: I'm going to have to delay applying for the bursary until I've applied for my CRB, which worries me a little - at some point I've managed to lose my original birth certificate, so I'm going to have to use my passport for both forms. For first time applicants of the MA bursary they need proof of nationality. My last CRB took 8 months to process (!) and my uni will only accept postal applications, not in person :o( I do have a provisional driving licence which I could use for my CRB if I really wanted to - but despite being 27 this year I still get ID'd regularly, so I don't want to have to send off all my proof of age documents at once! Ridiculous but true!
Hi Velma, I'm starting the BA @ Birmingham this year and I emailed the CRB admission tutor and asked her if I could take my documents in. The postage would have cost much more than the petrol. She quickly looked @ my documents and filled her section in and then gave me them back - I was there for less than 5 mins. I also managed to get in where the staff park - I got to the gate and people had a swipe card so I nicely asked the man if I could park there for 5 mins . I managed to get an appointment two days after I emailed. I still haven't received my CRB though - I went about 3 weeks ago but they can take a while to process.
Thanks, I might try that!
I live in Manchester, but my partner is in Birmingham so I'm there quite often. I'm actually going today to get my certificates verified at the admissions office, but I haven't enquired about the CRB because I'm still waiting to get some proof of address - in the age of paperless billing I haven't had any post sent to my home recently enough!
My CRB always takes ages unfortunately, living at 8 addresses in 5 years and not being on the electoral register for most of them...
Hi KDx
I studying at Anglia Ruskin and loving it.
Glad Student Finance is movint along for you! How long now since you applied? Just wondering cause I did my year 2 application about 10 days ago and not heard anything - but dont really expect to!
ceci
Hi Ceci, glad your loving your first year. Hopefully this time next year I will feel the same about my course! Have you had any placement yet?
I sent my application on the 7th of April however they had a backlog of post of about 4 weeks and didn't begin on my application until the 24th. Now I am waiting for my stepdads employer to fill out a form so that I can send that in. It's taking a while but I suppose this is the time when people are more likely to send their applications in. You can usually check online to see whether they have started to assess your form yet but if they haven't they probably still have a backlog. I suppose it can take longer if they require other evidence, some people have had theirs delt with quickly and some say it takes months. Hopefully mine will be sorted once I get the form sent in. Is it the same application form for year 2?
Maybe if you ask your bank for a statement this should have your address on. My mums crb took about 8 weeks to arrive it drove her mad! Perhaps if you do book an appointment you could mention the time it usually takes to come so perhaps the admissions may send it off as soon as possible.
Velma: Thanks, I might try that! I live in Manchester, but my partner is in Birmingham so I'm there quite often. I'm actually going today to get my certificates verified at the admissions office, but I haven't enquired about the CRB because I'm still waiting to get some proof of address - in the age of paperless billing I haven't had any post sent to my home recently enough! My CRB always takes ages unfortunately, living at 8 addresses in 5 years and not being on the electoral register for most of them...
hehe yeah, it took the CRB application for me to notice that I hadn't received a bank statement for 3 months - went and checked and lovely Barclays had randomly decided to send all my post to a complete stranger in Denton - so I'm now waiting for them to correct this, and respond to my complaint!
Ah, I'll get it done eventually...
Oh god what a nightmare! Hope that's all sorted out for you soon. I hate all this sorting out loans, crb's etc - I especially hate student finance right now!!
Hooray! My application has been approved for the postgraduate grant, i guess spending over £10 on postage is not bad for getting free money. Now i need to work hard with this last exam of mine.
Wow that was quick. I'm still waiting for my step dads employer to fill out a form for student finance so that can be properly assessed and then I can send my financial notification to the social work bursary. It's such a pain - my step dad has been constantly on at his employer for this form all they have to do is print something off! Its frustrating as I want to get this all sorted so I get my finance when I start uni! Argh!
Heard mines gone through today as well. Both the student finance and the bursary. It took four months to sort out last year so Im really gratefull that its all gone through so quickly this time.
Now I can concentrate on the two essays i have to have in by Monday!!
I've been granted £3,300 for the grant (MA in social work). Does that mean i've only applied for the non-income assessed? I read some posts on here that some people were granted over £5,000 excluding their tuition fee, i'm now thinking if i have filled the form wrong. What is income assessed?
i think the rules differ depending on whether you are applying in & studying in Eng/Wales/Scotland, but I can tell you what I know for the English student studying in England for the full time MA -
Basic grant outside London of £3362.50
Maintenance, or Income assessed grant, outside of London - up to £2608. Hence the total of around £5500.
The income assessed grant takes into account your household income - so if you have a partner who you live with they will look at their earnings for 2008/9. If your partner earns more than £20,868 then you won't be eligible. Also if you are being sponsered by an employer you won't be eligible.
If you are single it is likely you will be eligible, since by default you will be either unemployed or working part time during the MA. There is a tick box on the form that asks if you would like to apply for the income assessed bursary, and then you had to fill in details about any money you would earn that year, net interest from savings, pensions etc? Does that sound familar?
Might be worth downloading the form again to have a look and then give them a call. My friend last year missed the tick box and didn't realise til October when everyone else had more money than she did. She phoned them up and had to fill in a form they sent out to her, then she got her missing £2k!
Thanks. I will be studying outside of London and i do not live with my partner. I guess i have been given the right amount of money.