Additional Help

Students with Disabilities

If you are a disabled student you can apply for a Disabled Students’ Allowance. You must have one of the following to be eligible: long-term health condition, mental health condition or specific learning difficulty, for example, dyslexia, and you will also need to meet the definition of ‘disabled’ under the Equality Act 2010.

The support offered depends on your needs not your income and you can arrange to meet with an adviser from the Accessibility Team to discuss making an application.

Care Leavers

The University of Exeter offers a full tuition fee waiver for care leavers as well as a care leaver’s bursary - providing you met the qualifying criteria. For the purposes of these schemes, the University of Exeter follows the definition of care leaver used in the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000. This is ‘someone who has been in the care of the Local Authority for a period of 13 weeks or more spanning their 16th birthday'. Email us at advice@exeterguild.com or submit an enquiry for further information on the help and support available to care leavers and whether you may be eligible.

Student carers/parents

Full-time students with children could get extra financial help with their learning costs. This is called Parents’ Learning Allowance. The money can help pay for books, study materials and travel. How much you get depends on your household income.

Parents’ Learning Allowance:

  1. Doesn’t have to be paid back
  2. Is paid on top of your other student finance
  3. Won’t affect your benefits or tax credit

You may also be eligible to receive help towards the cost of childcare through a childcare grant. The grant helps with childcare costs for children under 15, or under 17 if they have special educational needs. This money does not have to be paid back. You must be eligible to apply for student finance in order to apply for this grant.

Benefits

Most full-time students aren’t eligible for any welfare benefits, but those who have children or who have a disability may be entitled to some support. The Advice Service can give you basic information, and if necessary refer you to a specialist adviser.

We will be releasing additional information shortly about for the following students: International students, Assylum Seekers, Estranged students, EU students.