The great majority of those entitled to bursaries in 2006/07 either applied to their university for funding, or were the subject of an automatic notification of eligibility from the Student Loans Company to their university because they had given consent to the sharing of financial data.
Many universities have worked hard to maximise take-up of bursaries. In some cases not enough has been done, and the Director of Fair Access, Martin Harris, has written to universities where this is so. We support this initiative. In addition, at our request the Student Loans Company is providing clearer information to applicants for student loans about the benefits of giving consent to share financial data with universities, although consent to share rightly remains a matter of individual choice.
DIUS raises awareness of all elements of the higher education student finance package including bursaries via literature, web and campaign material.
Additionally, the Department established a bursary map
www.direct.gov.uk/bursarymap
to help individuals link to higher education institutions in England to find out what financial help those institutions are offering and how they should apply.