Our Student Hardship Fund is there to support students who find themselves in situations where there is a real danger that they will not be able to complete their degrees. In the past year, your generosity has allowed us to award financially struggling students a record number of 155 hardship grants. Without this help, many of those students would not have been able to continue with their studies.
Students such as Teodor. Coming to the UK to take up his hard-won place at Cass and undertake a BSc in Business Studies, he put in long hours both with study and the part-time job that allowed him to get by. Money was always going to be incredibly tight, but his financial situation was thrown into jeopardy at the beginning of his final year, when he was struck down by severe tonsillitis which, following surgery, was exacerbated further by complications brought on by numerous infections. Unable to leave the house to work or study, Teodor found himself in a desperate situation.
Cass’s Student Hardship Fund saved the day, and quite possibly Teodor’s degree. Allowing him a period of grace so that he could recover, and helping pay off the bills that were accumulating, Teodor returned to his studies refreshed and ready for the vital final year of his degree.
Teodor can now carry on with the next stages of his plan. He wants to complement the financial and economics elements of his BSc with a postgraduate degree in Politics, which would allow him to seek out a position working for the EU, an organisation that he is passionate about. Teodor told us: “My ten year plan probably lacked one thing, a financial safety net. However, the Student Hardship Fund provided that safety net, allowing me to get through my illness and its complications, and then fully focus on the incredibly important final year of my Business Studies degree. Thank you so much to all the alumni who supported this.”
This is what the Student Hardship Fund is all about. Not only making sure that students complete their degrees, but sending them out into the wider world to do amazing things. All of your donations are an investment in society.