Students who receive the Oxford Opportunity Bursary will have to wait an extra week to receive their payment for this term.
In an email, receivers of the bursary were told that the instalment due to be made in 2nd week will now only be made in 3rd week.
The bursary offers non-repayable support to Oxford Undergraduates from lower income households, usually UK nationals. It is paid, on a sliding scale, to undergraduates with a household income under £25k.
The highest amount offered is £3,225 a year, meaning some students could be short by over £1000.
A University spokesperson told Cherwell that the delay is “the result of an error in ensuring the correct amount of time was allocated for the Student Loans Company to process students’ attendance and release bursary payments, and has resulted because of changes to the process by which the SLC activates students’ bursary payments.
“The University apologises profusely for its part in the delay to the payments and has contacted all colleges to request that students are given leeway in paying college battels and other charges that might be affected by the late payment of bursaries.”
The University also stressed to Cherwell that students with concerns about their immediate financial situation should “get in touch with the Student Financial Support team or their college bursary office for further guidance.”
One receiver of the Oxford Opportunity Bursary, Ryan Widdows, a 2nd year historian at St Anne’s, asked “What about the monetary wellbeing of those of us who have too much of a thirst for reckless gambling and drinking? We can’t survive that week.”
Another receipient of the bursary told Cherwell, “When I got the email telling me that my bursary would be over a week late, I was really pissed off. The euphimistic way which the University described its obvious cock-up as ‘an unforeseeable technical error’ really grated.
“It seems they don’t realise that this is actually a significant amount of money and will actually affect students.”
