DMU Support Fund - full-time undergraduate student information
Am I eligible to apply?
- You must be enrolled on your course
- You must be a Home student (and be assessed as such by your funding provider)
- You need to be approved for all funding you are eligible for (Tuition Fee Loan; means-tested Maintenance Loan/Grant; Adult Dependants' Grant; Parents' Learning Allowance; Childcare Grant; NHS Bursary; Social Work Bursary)
- If you are not entitled to funding from your funding provider (e.g. previous study; or Equivalent Level Qualification) you can still apply to the DMU Support Fund, but you must be able to evidence that you have sufficient funds to cover the total of your Tuition Fees. You must also have a Payment Plan in place for your fees, be up-to-date with your payments and not in debt to the University
- If the undergraduate degree you are studying does not attract national funding from Student Finance England (or equivalent), then you are not eligible to apply to this Fund. Examples of courses that are not eligible are: Art and Design (Foundation Studies); BTEC Diploma Preparation for Social Work; Transition to pre-registration Nursing Professional; Knowledge Module for Community Justice
- Students studying at a partnership college/ institution are not eligible to apply. Please contact your college/ institution for advice and support.
- Students who are resitting block study can apply, as long as they have been approved for their student funding, but please note that this Fund can't help with the shortfall of Maintenance Loan. If you are eligible for an award, the amount will be determined by the number of blocks you are resitting, e.g. resitting 2 blocks would be a 50% award.
What does this Fund help with?
- Care experienced: for students who can show they have been in care at some point in their lives
- Disability/medical condition (not a learning difference) that prevents you from working part time
- DSA laptop shortfall
- Future rent deposit: for those securing accommodation for next academic year with a deposit
- Students with children who live with them and are under 18 years old
- Registered childcare costs
- Repeat prescription costs
- Students who don’t qualify for the maximum funding due to household income (living away from home only)
- High rent and energy bills/ high mortgage and energy bills
- High travel costs (from term-time address to DMU campus).
How do I apply?
If you have checked you are eligible to apply, enrolled students will need to set up an account with Blackbullion first – you can register for free with your DMU email address. For more information, please visit our Be Money Smart web page.
You will need to upload your evidence documents within the online application form. Please ensure that you take the time to familiarise yourself with our video guides below on what we require, as missing evidence is the main reason why assessments are delayed. Help us to help you, by supplying all the required evidence from the start, when you submit your application.
Please make sure that you take the time to input all the correct information when you apply online. You don't need to complete it all in one go, you can go back to your application another day before you submit it. But, once you have submitted your application, you will not be able to submit additional evidence until we have checked your evidence; or submit another application until we have completed your assessment.
As part of the application process, you will be required to complete two learning pathways, set by us, within Blackbullion’s learning platform. If you applied last academic year, you will have done one of the pathways before. We will allocate the pathways to you (after you have submitted your application) within your Blackbullion account, so please ensure you check your DMU emails and your Blackbullion account regularly.
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What happens after I apply?
As long as you have provided all the required evidence and only AFTER you have completed the allocated pathways, we will aim to assess your application within four working weeks. If you are eligible for an award, you may need to allow a bit longer to receive the payment. Dates when DMU is closed (e.g. Christmas and Easter) do not form part of the turnaround time.
If an assessor contacts you to ask for clarification or for further evidence, it may take longer for your application to be assessed. We will aim to continue with the assessment as soon as we can after receiving the additional information.
You can check the status on your application page, within your Blackbullion account. Please avoid contacting us to check on the progress of your application until the four-working weeks have passed, unless you have a change of circumstances. The time spent investigating these enquiries stops the assessors from working on assessments.
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How can I contact you?
If you need advice on completing your application form, obtaining your supporting evidence, or on any issues relating to your student finance, please contact DMU Money Advice:
Tel: 0116 257 7595 (select option 3, then option 3 again)
Email: sfw@dmu.ac.uk
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How do I query my assessment decision?
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your assessment decision, you can book a ¼-hour 'Quick Query' appointment to review the outcome. Please don't book the appointment yourself, as we need to ensure you are booked in with the appropriate member of staff (not all staff can do these appointments).
If there is additional information that comes to light, or your circumstances have changed and you are able to provide evidence to support this, the administrator will determine whether to re-assess your application. If there is no additional evidence, the original decision will remain the same.
If you have checked that you are eligible to apply, please take the time to familiarise yourself with what evidence you will be required to supply, depending on your circumstances.
You will need to have all of your evidence, in an electronic format, ready to upload. You must submit the requested evidence, if you don’t, we can’t assess you, so please check all of the guidance videos that apply to your circumstances below.
NEW for 2023/24! Open Banking: Blackbullion has introduced Open Banking. If you provide your consent, the technology allows us to connect to your bank statements, which means you don’t have to download PDFs of 3 months statements and then upload them to your application. This should make the process of supplying bank statement evidence much easier. Rest assured we cannot edit or make any changes to your information, accounts, data and details. More information on Open Banking is provided by Blackbullion when you are asked how you will be submitting your bank statement evidence.
For your other evidence, you can use a free app called Adobe Scan, or take photos, or download PDFs, but please make sure that your evidence is clear, easy to read and you don’t chop off any important details.
You must supply the following:
Depending on your circumstances, please upload all the evidence that is applicable to you and what you state on your application form:
If you have already applied in 2023/24 and you are submitting another application: