International Hardship Fund 2022-23

Award details

Our Hardship Funds aim to remain open for the entire year, however you should apply as soon as you feel that you need additional help, as they may close earlier if funds are exhausted.

IHF is a limited fund set aside by the College to assist International and EU students who are experiencing financial difficulties, despite having arranged adequate funding for their studies.

International students who are currently experiencing financial difficulty should seek guidance from our Advice and Guidance team, who can offer confidential, expert advice.

If you have any queries about IHF, or any other aspect of student funding arrangements, please contact the Student Funding Office here at King's where we will be happy to offer you further advice.

If you are experiencing problems with your funding or are worried that you will not have enough money to cover all your costs Advice & Guidance in Student Services can assist you by checking you have received all the funding and benefits that you are entitled to and review your budget before you apply to hardship funds. We advise that you review your financial situation before them before the hardship fund opens and make use of the free money tools available from Blackbullion too.

Award value

Awards will vary in size depending on the student's need and circumstance, but can be up to £6,000.

Eligibility criteria

In order to be eligible to apply, you must:

• Demonstrate what financial provisions you had in place to completely fund your studies prior to enrolment
• Explain and provide evidence for the unforeseen change of circumstances that took place after you commenced your studies that has put you in financial hardship
• State the amount of award you are requesting from this fund and if successful, what this would go towards

UKVI has indicated that students will need about £1,334 for their living costs for each month of their programme of study, plus the costs of tuition fees. The above amount is solely an indication, as living costs will vary depending on individual circumstances. The unforeseen change in circumstances must have impacted your ability to access these funds.

If financial difficulties arise then you should contact the Student Funding Office or your personal tutor to discuss your circumstances.

IHF is open throughout the year whilst funds permit.

Award conditions

Disclaimer

The College has tried to give students an early opportunity to begin their research of student funding. Although every effort has been made to ensure that information provided is both helpful to prospective candidates and accurate at the time of its publication, it is possible that some information may be outdated or superseded before the start of the 2022/23 academic year.

Application process

Our Hardship Funds aim to remain open for the entire year, however you should apply as soon as you feel that you need additional help, as they may close earlier if funds are exhausted.

International students who are currently experiencing financial difficulty should seek guidance from our Advice and Guidance team before applying. This team can offer confidential and expert advice. 

You can apply online through King's Student Records.

On the first page of the King's Student Records, find the ‘My Fund Application’ box and select 'click here to view your funding options'.

Please ensure that you read the guidance notes carefully before completing the application form.

Once the application has been submitted you will receive an acknowledgement email with further information about the application process and the evidence required to support your case.

You will need to provide a supporting statement explaining how you meet the eligibility criteria and what evidence you have provided to support your application.

Your evidence should include:

• Details of the financial provisions you had in place to completely fund your studies prior to enrolment (Examples of evidence: Loan entitlement letter, Savings bank statements, Parental contribution seen on bank statements, Scholarship award letter).

• Details of the unforeseen change of circumstances that took place after you commenced your studies that has put you in financial hardship (Examples of evidence: Job termination letter, invoices/receipts for expenditure, annotated bank statements/payslips).

• Details of your financial need. State the amount of award you are requesting from this fund and if successful, what this would go towards (example: amount requested: £3,000: £2,000 towards rent and £1,000 towards living costs).

Please provide all supporting documentation to evidence the financial provision and change in circumstances as declared in the supporting statement as soon as possible.

All supporting documents must be legible:

• Scanned/electronic copies, preferably saved in a PDF format

• Entitled in the following format: SURNAME, Name – document title (e.g. SMITH, John – March bank statement)

• Send documents as email attachments. Please do not provide links to cloud storage or file sharing services (e.g. Google Drive, OneDrive) as we will be unable to access these files

• Bank statements must include annotations to identify any relevant transactions such as parental contributions and rent payments as well relevant information such as dates, currency type and names.

Please email your documents to funding@kcl.ac.uk and include your King’s Student ID (as on your ID card, not your K Number) in the email text.