St John's Undergraduate Studentships
The Scheme
St John’s College wishes our UK undergraduates from less advantaged backgrounds to have the resources to fulfil their academic potential and fully participate in co-curricular activities and student life. To support their educational experience, we provide these students with additional maintenance funding.
UK undergraduates from the most disadvantaged financial backgrounds, who enter the College from October 2023, will be able to access annual grants of up to £6,500 – through the Cambridge Bursary Scheme and St John’s own undergraduate Studentships scheme.
Access to Funds
For context, Cambridge University’s ‘maintenance rate’ – the sum to which it recommends students should have access for the purposes of covering their living costs during term time while at the University – has been set at £10,950. More information about how the Cambridge University Maintenance Rate is calculated may be found here.
Set against the Cambridge University Maintenance Rate of £10,950, UK undergraduates at St John’s with a household income of £16,190 or less will have access to £15,478 (or £16,478 with the ‘education premium’) per year, comprising:
• £9,978 maintenance loan from SFE (rate 2023-24)
• £3,500 Cambridge Bursary
• £2,000 St John’s College Studentship
• (£1,000 Cambridge Bursary ‘education premium’ for those who were in receipt of Free School Meals)
UK undergraduates with a household income of £25,000 will receive a total of £13,578, with a sliding scale operating between household incomes of £16,191 and £25,000.
SFE maintenance loan
UK students from England whose residual household incomes – as defined and assessed by Student Finance England (SFE) – are £25,000 or less should be eligible for the maximum UK Government SFE maintenance loan. For the present academic year (2023/24), the maximum loan is £9,978. Information on SFE is here .
UK students from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are served by different regional funding bodies than are UK students from England. The amount and nature of maintenance support available varies. Information on funding available via the regional funding bodies is here:
SFNI (Northern Ireland)
SAAS (Scotland)
SFW (Wales)
Potential students should note that they are not obliged to take out the entire government maintenance loan to which they are entitled, and some choose not to – if the funding otherwise available to them is sufficient to cover their maintenance costs at Cambridge.
Cambridge Bursary
Students whose residual household incomes are £25,000 or less should be eligible for a £3,500 bursary under the Cambridge Bursary Scheme. The Cambridge Bursary Scheme, which for St John’s students is partly financed by the College, provides graduated bursaries to all UK students in the University whose household incomes are £62,215 or less. Under this scheme, students who have qualified for free school meals receive a further ‘education premium’ of £1,000. Information on the Cambridge Bursary
St John's Studentship
A St John’s College Studentship will then add a further £2,000 of ‘top-up’ funding for all UK undergraduates with household incomes of £16,190 or less. Students with household incomes above £16,190 will receive an amount tapering from just under £2,000 at a household income of £16,191 to £100 for those with a household income of £25,000.
Eligibility Requirements
Eligibility Requirements
In order for a student to be eligible for a St John’s Studentship, they have to:
- study towards their first undergraduate degree at St John’s College and be liable to pay tuition fees;
- be a UK student or an EU with settled or pre-settled status;
- be entitled to financial support from Student Finance England (or regional equivalent, SFNI, SFW or SAAS) ; and
- have a family income, as assessed by Student Finance England, of £25,000 or less.
Notes
MVST students will be eligible for a St John's College Studentship only during the first three years of their studies (pre-clinical studies).
Students on their year abroad will be eligible to receive the St John’s Studentship provided the year abroad is an integral part of their course at St John’s.
The College bases the financial assessment on Government Student Finance data. The basic measure, household income, refers to a family's income before tax but after pension contributions. In order to prove eligibility, students will need to apply to Student Finance for a means-tested financial assessment. The College reserves the right to ask for additional information and/or evidence if required, and potentially to withhold any award until all requirements have been satisfied. For the academic year 2023-24, Student Finance England will ordinarily base the assessment of the household income on the tax year 2021-22, unless there has been a significant drop of income since then.
To distribute the funds available for means-tested financial support in the most efficient way and support the students who are in greatest need, the College takes into account all other funding available to students, either from the College, or from the University, or from external bodies. If a student has access to funds (grants, bursaries, scholarships, prizes etc) which are deemed sufficient to cover their living costs in full, the College will not make a top-up Studentship award.