(Published on Thursday 8th October)

The economic impact of Covid19 on the United Kingdom’s economy has harmed the finances of our students. This is because some of our students have not just had their parents lose their jobs, they have also lost access to part-time jobs that they could have used to support themselves through school. Since March 2020, we have worked with the University closely on expanding its Living Cost Support Fund (LCSF) to including attending to covid19 related hardship that students are facing. We worked on ensuring that barriers that hindered some student groups like international students and Postgraduate research students were removed.

As at the second week of September 2020, over £78,000 has been distributed to over 168 students who span from undergraduates, Postgraduate taught,  Postgraduate research, international students, home students and EU students. Attached are graphs that evidence the successful fund applications by all the student groups. The general hardship concerns that students who applied for the fund raised were around struggling financially auto the lack of part-time Jobs, or hardship of their parents or carers due to lockdown.

53 applications were turned down and some of the reasons were, some applicants bank statement showing a lot more savings, some not being current students and others already receiving sponsorship stipends. We completely understand the hardship students are going through even when sponsored but, we will kindly beg you to cooperate with us so that we can prioritise students that needs it the most for emergency survival.

Don’t forget to share this report to your friends in hardship to immediately apply for the fund through this link: https://bit.ly/3brT2wx. Below is the guidance document if you require assistance on a step by step support to completing the application process https://bit.ly/3nvoote.

Don’t forget you can reach me via the contacts below for a chat.

Email: gensec.su@manchester.ac.uk
Twitter: @asamoahpeters
Facebook: Kwame Asamoah Kwarteng SU
Instagram: @asamoahpeters