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Home>York Unlimited>News>2020>University launches Emergency Student Support Fund

New fund for students financially affected by COVID-19 pandemic

Posted on 25 March 2020

Thanks to generous donations from alumni and friends, we have launched an Emergency Student Support Fund in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Fund will provide bursaries of up to £500 per student applicant. The bursaries will support students facing unanticipated financial challenges as a result of the pandemic, such as living costs, travel expenses, and technology to support online learning

"The country faces an unprecedented challenge and we are doing all we can to help our students through this incredibly difficult time. We are able to react quickly to the crisis because of the support of our very many generous donors who also wish to help those students in greatest need at this time. We are keenly aware of how fortunate we are to have such a compassionate community of donors and alumni." - Professor Charlie Jeffery, Vice-Chancellor and President

Students’ applications will be reviewed on their merits, but where necessary priority will be given to groups including care leavers, estranged students, medical and nursing students, and students with children or caring responsibilities. The full criteria will be published when applications open.

The Emergency Student Support Fund is only possible because of the extraordinary generosity of donors to student support causes at York, including the York Student Support Fund, YuFund and York Opportunity Scholarships

"We are so grateful to the community of benefactors who have made it possible for us to provide immediate assistance to our students. We will monitor the requests for emergency funding from our students over the coming weeks and will try our best to respond in a timely way to help with some of the financial pressures that our UK and overseas students might face as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. I believe this is one of the first schemes launched in the UK for students." - Mary Haworth, Director of Philanthropic Partnerships and Alumni

In our first round of funding in March, we received a high volume of applications and more than 300 students received emergency support. Applications were carefully reviewed on a case-by-case basis against core criteria, and all applicants have been contacted directly by email, which included details of other sources of support and financial assistance.

Our sincere thanks to the generous community of York alumni and supporters around the world for providing support for our students in these difficult times.

Please see our coronavirus (COVID-19) updates page for the latest information and advice and to find out more about the new Emergency Student Support Fund, please contact essf@york.ac.uk.

If you wish to make a personal contribution to the Emergency Student Support Fund, you can do so via the Donation Form.