We award the BU Maintenance Bursary, BU Care Leavers Bursary and BU Estrangement Bursary based on the information you have supplied to UCAS and Student Finance England. The details shown on our website are for new students joining us in September 2026. If you're a current student, From 2026/27 onwards, you may be eligible for the bursaries outlined on these webpages. All the details of scholarships and bursaries for previous intakes can be found in our Students section. 

Your eligibility for the bursaries will be automatically reassessed and confirmed by email before the start of each year. If your eligibility is not re-confirmed then you will not receive any more payments.

If you participate in a placement year as part of your course then you will not receive bursary payments during that year, but payments will recommence when you return to complete your studies, subject to you continuing to meet the other eligibility criteria.

You will only receive a bursary while you study an undergraduate course; if you are taking an Integrated Master’s degree, then you will not be eligible for a bursary in your final year.

You must be fully enrolled at the time that the bursary payment is due. No payment will be made to you during any period where you interrupt your studies. If you withdraw prior to the payment date, you will not be entitled to a pro-rata payment. Enrolment status is checked by the Finance and Performance Team on a monthly basis before triggering the card payment.

If your assessment by Student Finance England comes through after the start of term, you will be awarded a lump-sum back payment, followed by the remaining instalments.

Any September starters whose financial assessments come through after 31 May will not be eligible for the current academic year, however, will be automatically assessed for a bursary in the following year. No payments will be made after the official academic year has finished (end of June), based on the standard September undergraduate academic dates. Bursary payments can only be paid in the academic year the award was made. 

How are the bursaries paid?

Your bursary will be loaded onto a pre-paid card. The money will be made available to you in nine instalments from October to June. 

Instalment dates for 2026/27 entry

You will need to allow 48 hours from these dates for the funds to be available:

  • 5 October 2026
  • 2 November 2026
  • 7 December 2026
  • 4 January 2027
  • 1 February 2027
  • 1 March 2027
  • 5 April 2027
  • 3 May 2027
  • 7 June 2027

For payment dates for 2025/26 and for further information, please visit our card provider's FAQs page.

You can only spend money that’s in your account, so you can’t go overdrawn, and you can receive up to 2% cashback on purchases at certain retailers. You will not be able to withdraw cash on the pre-paid card. You will receive a copy of the full terms and conditions when you collect your card following enrolment at BU and can also access these from the Finance section of our ‘important information’ area of the website.

Your spend on the pre-paid card may be monitored by the card issuer and by BU and should you be found to be in breach of the terms and conditions of the card, you may have further bursary instalments suspended and/or spend on the card blocked and you may be required to attend a meeting with the Student Support Manager and be subject to disciplinary action in line with the BU Student Disciplinary Procedure under Conduct and welfare section of the Important information page.

The BU Maintenance Bursary, BU Care Leavers Bursary and BU Estrangement Bursary do not need to be paid back.

How will I receive my card?

Your pre-paid Award card will be sent to the term time contact address you provided to us (during the Online Registration process) and will be posted after the start date for your course. If we do not have a term time contact address for you at the point the card is issued, the card will be sent to the home address you provided. Please make sure that your contact address details are up-to-date when completing online registration and thereafter by visiting myHub.

What happens if I repeat a unit?

Students repeating units at a level of study for which they have already undertaken, will not normally be eligible for bursary funds.