Miserly Oxford
Students at Cambridge appear to have a greater chance of receiving a university bursary, giving Cambridge a crucial advantage in securing more applications from students with state school backgrounds.
More students are eligible to apply for the Newton bursary at Cambridge than are eligible to apply for our own Oxford Bursary. Oxford students can apply only if they receive full remission on their tuition fees. This means that only around 300 - 400 students will be eligible for the scheme this year.
At Cambridge any student who receives a loan and full fee remission will be given the full bursary, there is also no limit on the number of these which can be given out. At Oxford, only those students deemed most needy are invited to apply, and they may receive a proportion of the full bursary.
To compound the situation further Cambridge bursaries are worth up to £4,000 across a 4 year course, Oxford's only £2,500 over the same period of time.
A Mansfield fresher told of how her LEA assessed her as having to pay 10% of her fees - so she missed out on a bursary. She commented "It's really stupid that it's all or nothing and it leaves students like me financially worse off".
However Sonia Sodha, OUSU Vice-President (Access & Academic Affairs) commented that whilst "It would be great if the scheme were more widespread and more comprehensive... anything is better than nothing".
31st Oct 2002