Going to university can be daunting for many reasons, but one of the main worries we’re hearing about at the moment is money. Whether you’re a commuter student, have childcare responsibilities or are just concerned about making ends meet, Birmingham City University (BCU) is here to support you with your finances. Read on to learn what financial support is available while you’re studying at BCU.
Free budgeting and finance education with Blackbullion
All BCU students get free access to the financial education site Blackbullion. This website has been created to help give you all the tools and knowledge you need to manage your money successfully. You can complete digital learning modules about everything from budgeting to investing, and they offer useful tools like a budget calculator.
You can also use the website to search for funds you can apply to for extra money to supplement your budget (read our bursaries, scholarships, and grants blog to learn more about this). Once you’ve got a BCU email address you can sign up for a free full Blackbullion account, but you can also complete some of the pre-university modules by setting one up with your normal email address.
Find additional funding
BCU have a partnership with Open 4 Learning, which is an online platform to search for extra funding like bursaries, grants, and scholarships. These are all kinds of funding which you don’t have to pay back, unlike your tuition and maintenance loans, and can help cover specific costs while you’re at university. You can register for Open 4 Learning for free with your BCU email address.
Student Support
Our Student Support team are on hand to help you with any worries you might have about finances. They can help you with everything from Student Finance to accessing welfare benefits and offer tiered levels of support based on your individual needs. If you’re having money trouble the first thing to do is get in touch with the Student Support team and they’ll work out how best to help.
We offer three levels of support:
- Student pantry: a discrete service where you can access food through a private meeting with the Student Support team.
- Emergency fund: emergency payments to help cover immediate hardship and essential needs like travel or energy. Accessed through a private meeting with the Student Support team and a short application.
- Financial assistance fund: for serious financial difficulties, can be accessed by completing an online application and providing supporting evidence. You’ll also need to complete the Blackbullion module ‘Budgeting 101’ before you can make an application.
The Student Support team also offer specialist advice for students with childcaring responsibilities and care leavers. If you’re a current BCU student you can find more details on financial support and how to apply on iCity.
Money can be one of the biggest concerns about going to university, but we are here to support you and give you the tools you need to manage your finances successfully. Whether you’re looking for practical advice about budgeting or need emergency support to plug a shortfall in funding, we are here to help.
