Imperial College London announces financial support package for UK students joining the College in 2012-13

Details of generous financial support available, following approval to set fees at £9,000 for students joining in 2012.

News release
Tuesday 12 July 2011 

Imperial College London announces financial support package for UK students joining the College in 2012-13

• A maximum of £6,000 in non-repayable support available per annum to students from household incomes of less than £25,000
• Financial support available to those from household incomes up to £60,000
• College estimates amount spent on financial support by 2015-16 will be between £6-£8.4million
• A maximum of £9,250 per student per year in non-repayable support available from the College and government sources.

Imperial College London today announces its financial support package for undergraduate students joining the College in 2012. Comprising both tuition fee waivers and cash to help students manage upfront living costs, financial support will be offered on a sliding scale linked to circumstances to students from household incomes of up to £60,000.  The College currently spends approximately £3.5 million on financial support; it estimates that by 2015-16 it will spend between £6 - £8.4 million on financial aid for UK students. 

The College also announces a significant increase in its outreach programme targeted to give disadvantaged students a better chance of achieving the academic standards in science necessary to enter the College and other selective universities.

Rector Sir Keith O’Nions said: “I am delighted that we are able to announce this generous package of support today. Whilst raising fees to £9,000 is necessary to maintain our quality in response to the reduction in government funding, this package will ensure that all those with demonstrated ability to manage Imperial’s courses have the support they need to help manage its costs.”

“Imperial College Students’ Union and the College have worked closely to develop a financial support package which will be most helpful to Imperial students and we believe the combination of tuition fee waiver and bursary is both attractive and reassuring to prospective students.

The increase in our outreach activities to raise aspiration and attainment in science in schools, will improve access for the brightest and best students, regardless of financial circumstance.”

Alex Kendall, President of the Imperial College Union said: “An Imperial degree is one of the best investments you can make. It is intellectually stimulating and fulfilling, it challenges and stretches students, and makes them highly employable. We have thought hard about what would help students joining in 2012 and beyond, and we believe that the most beneficial and supportive thing we could do is to provide both a fee waiver and upfront cash to ease the financial challenges for those who might otherwise struggle.”

Imperial’s financial support package*

Following approval to set its fees at £9,000 for Home and EU undergraduate students joining the College in 2012-13, Imperial has committed within its Access Agreement to spend at least 35% of the additional income from tuition fees, on financial support.  This will be focused on helping disadvantaged students to meet the difference between government maintenance support and the cost of living and studying in London, whilst tuition fee waivers will ensure that those who are more likely to be debt averse are not discouraged from studying at the College.

Financial aid will be offered on a sliding scale to UK students from households with incomes of up to £60,000, and the College will not distinguish between students living at home and those who are not.

Students from a household with an income of £25,000 or less will receive the highest level of financial support from the College totalling £6,000 per year. This consists of a cash bursary of £3,500 and a fee waiver of £2,500. The level of aid will be scaled downwards so that those from household incomes in the £55,001-£60,000 bracket will receive £900 in bursary provision and no fee waiver at this level.

The package of financial support announced by the College today is in addition to government support that eligible students will be able to access, which includes tuition fee loans and cost of living grants and loans. 

*See Notes to Editors below for full details of the support that Imperial will offer.

Outreach activities

In its Access Agreement with OFFA, Imperial, together with the amount it leverages with an external provider of outreach activities, has committed to increase spending to at least £1.7 million.

Through its existing outreach programme, Imperial seeks to raise aspirations towards higher education generally, and science in particular, and support science teaching in schools. Around 15,000 pupils and parents per annum benefit from the College’s Widening Participation School Visits Programme and 6,000 pupils per annum are involved in summer schools and science activities. The Reach Out Lab, which opened in 2010 with £1 million of capital investment, provides experience of science and university for pupils specifically from schools without ready access to laboratories. Over 4,000 participant days were delivered in its first year to pupils from 200 different schools.

Alongside these existing activities, Imperial will develop and provide additional schemes targeted specifically at disadvantaged students who have shown potential in those subjects required for entry to the College. The ultimate aim is to encourage and enable capable students who are least likely to apply to a selective university to do so.

Increasing philanthropic giving

Imperial’s primary fundraising goal is the support of scholarships and financial aid, and the College is taking an active approach to generating philanthropic support from its network of 150,000 alumni and its non-alumni supporters. Recent appeals have shown that an increasing number of those who have benefited from an Imperial education themselves are willing to assist future generations of students. The College’s long-term goal is to build the resilience of an endowment to give Imperial a sustainable basis to attract the brightest and best in the world for generations to come.

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For further information please contact:

Simon Watts
Imperial College London Press Office
Tel: 020 7594 6701
Email: s.watts@imperial.ac.uk
Out of hours duty press officer: +44(0)7803 886 248

John-Paul Jones
Imperial College London Press Office
Tel: 020 7594 6704
Email: john-paul.jones@imperial.ac.uk

Notes to Editors

Imperial’s financial support package

• In line with government policy for UK Higher Educ ation, the increa se in tui tion fees will only affect those UK and EU students joining the College from 2012-13. Current students are unaffected.
• Imperial offers a very flexible financial support package including fee waivers, cash bursaries and reduced accommodation expenses. Financial assistance will be focused towards helping with those costs that are not covered by government maintenance loans and grants.
• Financial aid will be offered on a sliding scale to UK students from households with incomes of up to £60,000, and the College will not distinguish between students living at home and students living away from home.
• Students from household with incomes of £25,000 or less will receive financial support from the College totalling £6,000 per year. This consists of a bursary of £3,500 and a fee waiver of £2,500.
• The level of aid will be scaled downwards so that those from household incomes in the £55,001-£60,000 bracket will receive £900 in bursary provision and no fee waiver at this level.

• Students in their first year will have the opportunity to receive direct financial aid in the form a partial accommodation fee waiver where appropriate.
• As a result of both government and Imperial support, a student from a household with an income of less than £25,000 will benefit from £9,250 of non-repayable support per year, consisting of:
  • A government living cost grant of £3,250
  • A £3,500 Imperial bursary
  • An Imperial fee waiver of £2,500
  • No student will need to pay anything towards their tuition fees upfront, and the government will provide the money for any eligible student in England who secures a place in higher education. Students take out a tuition fee loan which they start to repay when they are working and earning more than £21,000 a year. Universities UK-commissioned research by Martin Lewis suggests that under the new system, graduates will pay £540 a year less than they do under the current system where repayments begin when graduates are earning £15,000.

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