Access to Learning Fund
The Access to Learning Fund (ALF) provides additional support to home full-time or part-time undergraduate and postgraduate students who are facing extreme unforeseen financial difficulty or unexpected financial crisis.
Awards from the fund are paid on top of the standard student finance package. You are expected to apply for all the loans, grants and bursaries (wherever appropriate) to which you are entitled before asking for help from the fund.
Although the funding is provided by the government, you apply through the university once you are registered on your programme. The fund usually opens in mid-October each year. You do not need to repay any money awarded.
Eligibility
To apply you must be:
- A UK National.
Or - An EU National, who has lived in the UK for a minimum of three years prior to the first day of the first academic year of study.
Or - An EU National who does not satisfy the residency criteria of three years – eligibility will be for the Additional Fee Support Scheme (AFSS) only. The AFSS is an award to ‘top-up’ part-time fee grant support from the Local Authority where the level of grant does not cover the fee charged by the university.
International students are not eligible to apply to the Access to Learning Fund.