Study Life Award
The Study Life Award aims to help those students from lower income households and who live in areas that have low participation rates for higher education by giving them financial assistance that can be used for a number of day to day costs that can be incurred at university. These may include, Accommodation, Course Materials, Food, Printing and travel.
The Award Package
The Award is worth up to £950 per year and will be distributed as a mixture of Print Credits, lunch vouchers, and discounted travel opportunities.
Eligibility
Applications for the Study Life Award will be Automatically assessed provided the applicant meets the following Criteria:
- You Must be classed as a Home student for fee paying purposes
- You must be a new Cardiff Metropolitan University student that has applied through UCAS and entering a full-time Undergraduate course at Year one or Foundation level.
- You have made Cardiff Met your Firm choice on UCAS by the 27th June 2025.
- Your Permanent Address must be in an area that has low participation rates in Higher Education.
- Your Household Income must be less than £30,000
- Students awarded a Care Leavers or Estranged students Bursary will also automatically receive the Study Life Award
Please see the Terms and Conditions section for more information on the above eligibility criteria.
If you are not Eligible for the Study Life Award and are experiencing any financial difficulty then please reach out to our Money Advice team via: moneyadvice@cardiffmet.ac.uk
Terms and Conditions
The Study Life full terms and conditions can be found here.
How To Apply
No specific application is required. As a new student attending Cardiff Metropolitan University, you will be assessed automatically for if you meet the criteria outlined in the Eligibility section above.
FAQs
If your postcode is not identified by our Participation Neighbourhood Eligibility Checker as a designated low participation area then you will not be eligible for the award. We are reliant on external agencies in updating this data and this data is subject to change. Postcodes are categorised currently according to the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) 2019, the POLAR4 Young, and Adult HE 2011 coding systems. Data was provided by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) in May 2022.
Currently, only new undergraduate students are automatically assessed for the bursary. For full terms and conditions of the award please visit our Study Life webpage. If you are a current Cardiff Met student and are experiencing financial difficulties, please contact our student advisory service on moneyadvice@cardiffmet.ac.uk for advice.
Once the bursaries have been allocated and communicated to students (no later than 30 September), you will be contacted by studylife@cardiffmet.ac.uk with the details of your award package. Payment and provision of the individual award elements can only be activated once you have successfully enrolled onto your full-time degree course, and once your course has started. If none of the component elements of the Study Life bursary have been activated by the 1 December 2023, the bursary offer will be rescinded and re-allocated to another student.
Your eligibility for the Study Life award will be assessed each academic year against the terms and conditions and you will be emailed each year that you qualify for the scheme. Payment of the Study Life award in those years after the initial year of attendance is subject to successful progression onto the next numerical year of study (e.g., from 0FT09 to 1FT09) and meeting of the eligibility criteria year on year.
Students from foundation level to fourth year will be considered for the bursary. A fourth year is permitted for those starting on a foundation year or studying a four-year course. Students on a course that includes a placement year will not receive the bursary during that placement. The award does not cover any resits unless there are full mitigating circumstances.
The Study Life award is not allocated without progression, unless there are full mitigating circumstances, so if you must re-sit any year, you will not be entitled to receive the award for that year. Payment of the Study Life award is subject to successful progression onto the next numerical year of study (e.g., from 0FT09 to 1FT09) and meeting of the eligibility criteria year on year.
Information on mitigating circumstances can be found in the Cardiff Met Academic Handbook.
Contact us
If you have any queries relating to the Study Life Award, please contact Admissions via: scholarship@cardiffmet.ac.uk