How can universities make financial support more effective?
JS Group has released its latest annual report, Beyond the Bursary: Rethinking Student Financial Support, highlighting how students' financial needs often fall outside traditional funding cycles, and how better-designed support can improve participation, retention and success.
Drawing on four years of data from more than 45 higher education institutions, the report brings together insights from £352 million in financial support delivered to over 1.2 million beneficiaries, alongside feedback from 5,000 students.
The findings reveal that financial need doesn't follow traditional university funding cycles. Students face significant costs before arriving at university, between scheduled student finance payments and when unexpected difficulties arise. This highlights opportunities for universities to rethink when and how support is provided, ensuring funding reaches students at the moments when it can make the greatest difference.
The research also highlights the wider benefits of well-designed financial support, from reducing financial anxiety and building confidence to enabling greater participation in university life. Among students surveyed:
88%
said receiving funding quickly reduced their stress or anxiety.
88%
said having control over when they accessed funding helped them budget more effectively.
77%
said support helped them participate more in university activities and student life.
86%
said funding supported them in continuing their studies.
As Peter Gray, Chairman & CEO of JS Group, comments:
"Universities invest significant sums in financial support every year, and that investment makes an enormous difference. But with increasing pressure on university finances, we need to ensure that every pound delivers the greatest possible benefit.
Our research gives us a much clearer understanding of how financial support can remove barriers, create opportunities and help students make the most of university life. We now have a substantial body of evidence to help universities make more informed decisions about how support is designed, targeted and delivered."
The report challenges universities to move beyond simply delivering financial support and start designing it for impact.
Effective financial support is not simply a question of how much is provided. It is a question of how well that support is designed around students' real circumstances.
