This policy sets out the criteria we apply when determining who is eligible for the Progress Bursary, how it is awarded, when it is allocated and the regulations which apply to refunds and intermissions. The policy applies to all students (as indicated in section 3 below) and will be updated before the start of each academic year.
In 2006/07 the UK Government allowed universities to charge a higher fee up to a maximum of £3,000 per annum to new full time undergraduate students. In order to help our students meet the costs of studying, UEL introduced a range of bursaries and scholarships.
The UEL Progress Bursary provides study related goods and services which we believe will help students to successfully complete their programmes of study. The bursary is awarded mid academic year and is dependent on students fully engaging with all components of their programmes.
The Progress Bursary card has been developed jointly by UEL and our campus bookseller; John Smiths.
If you are a full-time undergraduate student from either the UK or the EU (since 2006/7) and you are paying fees of £3,375 (new students) or more, you are eligible for the UEL Progress Bursary. This will only be awarded if you successfully complete your first semester and will be paid at the start of your second semester each year
You will be classed as a new student and charged fees of £3,290 in 2011/12 if any of the following apply to you:
You will be classed as a full time student if you are studying 5 or more modules over the year.
When you applied for your place, your fee status will have been assessed as either home (from the UK), European (from another EU country) or International. This assessment is based upon your status and history of residence in the EU.
All undergraduate programmes (BA, BSc), foundation degrees and Btec programmes are included in the Progress Bursary scheme. Listed below are other programmes which are also eligible
| Course Code | Name of Programme |
|---|---|
U0266 |
PGCE Secondary Science |
U0267 |
PGCE Secondary Religious Education |
U0268 |
PGCE Secondary Physical Education |
U0269 |
PGCE Secondary Music |
U0270 |
PGCE Secondary Modern Foreign Language |
U0271 |
PGCE Secondary Mathematics |
U0272 |
PGCE Secondary Information Communication |
U0273 |
PGCE Secondary English |
U0274 |
PGCE Secondary Design and Technology |
U0276 |
PGCE Post Compulsory Education and Training |
P0639 |
Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) Primary |
P0640 |
Postgraduate Certificate In Education (PGCE Primary) |
U0277 |
PGCE Primary |
U0278 |
PGCE Primary Modern Foreign Language |
It does not matter who pays your fees, they can be paid by yourself, a family member, a commercial sponsor or Local Authority / Student Loans Company. The important factor is that your fees are £3,225 for 2011/12 and are charged to you directly by the University of East London.
Part of the Progress Bursary is administered on our behalf by our campus bookseller, John Smiths. When completing your on-line enrolment you will be required to sign up to a data protection agreement which allows us to pass some of your details to John Smiths for the purpose of creating your Progress Bursary card. This is essential for the scheme to work as you will need to show your Progress Bursary card to buy many of the goods and services which are available under the scheme. We will only pass basic details such as your name, address, student number, date of birth and UEL email address to John Smiths. If you do not sign up to this data protection agreement you will not be eligible for the Progress Bursary and we will record that you have chosen to opt out of the scheme.
Even if you satisfy all the conditions of section 3 and are eligible for the Progress Bursary you must satisfy the following assessment and progression criteria each year before you receive an award:
• submit, by deadline, all pieces of coursework or assignments for each of the modules you are required to study in your first semester and attend all exams (Semester A if you started in September or Semester B if you started in February)
• have a good attendance record
• continue from your first semester into your second semester
• not breach UEL regulations; in particular all pieces of assessment must be your own work.
If you study modules which span a full year rather than a single semester, your School will specify what you must do in order to obtain the Bursary. For these modules, success will be awarded according to your attendance and whether or not you have completed everything that was expected of you. Your School will be asked to confirm whether you have met the requirements.
At the start of your second semester, you will have been awarded the progress bursary
automatically if you successfully completed your first semester and progressed into your
second semester. Log on to your UEL Progress Bursary account through UEL Direct to check
If your programme is scheduled to last for three years (eg BA, BSc) you will be eligible to receive £500 in your first year of study and £300 in your second and third years. If your programme takes longer than three years you will only be eligible for the Progress Bursary in the first three years.
If your programme is scheduled to last for two years (eg foundation degree), you will be eligible for £500 in your first year and £300 in your second year
If your programme is scheduled to last for one year (eg PGCE), you will be eligible for £500 in your first year of study only
If your programme takes longer than the scheduled number of years (due to re-taking modules for example) you will only be eligible for the Progress Bursary for the number of years stated above.
If you undertake an extended degree programme which is scheduled to last for four years you are only eligible to receive the Progress Bursary for a maximum of three years
You will not be eligible for a Progress Bursary for the year in which you are undertaking a placement during your programme of study or if you study for a single semester only
At the start of your second semester you should check the home page in UEL-Direct under the link to PB (Progress Bursary) Services. Clicking on this link will display a message advising you whether or not you have been successful and when the funds will be available for you to spend.
Currently, there are a number of different ways in which you can spend your Progress Bursary on a variety of study related activities and products. By using your Progress Bursary card you can use your funds to pay for books, stationery, a range of laptops and computer storage devices at John Smiths bookshops at our Stratford and Docklands campuses. You can also purchase oyster card top ups at the Docklands campus John Smiths bookshop.
We will provide you with a statement of your Progress Bursary account within UEL-direct where you will also be able to transfer funds to pay for UEL on-campus accommodation, UEL nursery charges, UEL field trips and UEL replacement library book charges. Some Architecture and Visual Arts students can pay for materials using their Progress Bursary, please check with your School administrator.
We plan to develop the goods and services available and will update UEL-direct with information as it arises.
You are not able to use your Progress Bursary to pay for other students’ UEL accommodation, field trips etc. We will ensure that there are corresponding names on the two accounts prior to processing requests. Any requests that are found to be in different names will not be processed.
If you did not receive the Progress Bursary and need to re-sit an exam or re-submit a piece of coursework in the summer, you will be eligible for a second try at being awarded the Progress Bursary. We will review the components you were required to take in your first semester and the components undertaken during the summer and if the criteria detailed in section 5 have been satisfied we will award you the Progress Bursary in October.
If you still fail to satisfy all the criteria after the summer reassessment, you will have lost your chance for allocation of a Progress Bursary for that year. This will mean that the maximum number of years for which you may be awarded will be reduced to two (subject to the conditions in section 7)
If you withdraw from your studies having attempted all components of assessment during your first semester, you will still be eligible for the Progress Bursary provided you withdraw after the second week of teaching in your second semester.
If you intermit from your studies having attempted all components of assessment during your first semester, you will not be eligible for the Progress Bursary until you re-commence your studies.
If you are awarded the Progress Bursary and it is subsequently discovered that you were not in attendance at the relevant date, your Progress Bursary will be reversed and all funds removed from your Progress Bursary account. You will be required to repay any funds that you have already spent.
As long as you agreed to us sharing your personal information with our partner during enrolment as described in section 4, you do not have to claim the bursary. If you intermit during your programme as noted in section 11, you should notify us on your return so that we can credit your Progress Bursary account with any awards you were entitled to.
The decision about the award of the Bursary is UEL’s and not John Smith’s
Any queries, please contact the Finance and Registry Help team – finance.registry@uel.ac.uk / 0208 223 7526
If you are found to have breached any of our assessment regulations on any component you will not be eligible for the Progress Bursary and you will forfeit your award for that academic year. You will not be able to regain the award following a re-sit/re-submission or in a subsequent year.
If the breach comes to light after you have been awarded the Progress Bursary, your funds will be reversed. You will be required to repay any funds that you have already spent.
If you wish to discuss why you have not been awarded the Progress Bursary or do not agree with the decision and wish to appeal against it, please contact the Finance and Registry Help Team by telephone on 020 8223 7526 or e-mail at finance.registry@uel.ac.uk. They will be able to advise you on the reason for the non-allocation and, if you still do not agree with the decision, they will be able to check with your School Registrar to ensure the accuracy of the information held on our Student Records database.
All awards are made in accordance with this policy and based on assessment data held in our Student Records database.
If you do not use any or all of your Progress Bursary funds within any given year, you will be able to carry this credit forward to future years. There is no timescale within which the funds have to be used and they will remain on your Progress Bursary account until such time that they have been used or refunded.
Whilst we would encourage you to take advantage of the study related goods and services on offer to you during your time with us, you will be able to apply for a refund of any funds remaining on your Progress Bursary account upon graduation. If you have other outstanding debts to UEL we will automatically offset any unspent Progress Bursary funds against these debts when you graduate and before we process any refund requests.
UEL reserve the right to offset your Progress Bursary funds against any outstanding University of East London debt at the end of each academic year.
To apply for a refund, please write to the Finance and Registry Help Team, University of East London, Room EB2.17, 4-6 University Way, London E16 2RD or e-mail your request to finance.registry@uel.ac.uk. The refund will be sent as a cheque in your name.
If you have any queries with regards to the Progress Bursary scheme, eligibility, allocation or the UEL-Direct web pages, please contact the Finance and Registry Help Team by telephone on +44 (0)20 8223 7526 or e-mail us at finance.registry@uel.ac.uk.
If you are experiencing problems with you Progress Card, pin number or would like specific information on purchases made at John Smiths bookshops, please contact them by going to one of the on-campus bookshops or by e-mailing them at queries.progresscard@johnsmith.co.uk.
Most of the award process is automatic and based on a number of simple rules which ensure that all the various qualifying criteria are met. If your Progress Bursary is allocated to you manually, after this initial automated stage, you will receive your funds within 24 hours of us making a decision.
If you make an on line request for your Progress Bursary funds to be used towards a field trip or accommodation etc, your request will be processed within 24 working hours and an email confirmation will be sent to you advising that this has been completed.
We will endeavour to respond to e-mail enquiries within 24 hours wherever possible (although some delays may be experienced during exceptionally busy periods)
Financial Services reserve the right to withdraw Progress Bursary funds from any student who is found to have attempted any sort of fraudulent activity with regard to the Progress Bursary scheme or use of the Progress Bursary card.
© 2009
UEL Progress Card Leaflet (130 KB )
You can now use your Bursary Card to buy digital equipment online and benefit from great deals on laptops ~ printers ~ software ~ and more @ uelprogress.co.uk
Save money on your books and stationery at John Smith’s bookshops with your Progress Card
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