Social work students – what are they entitled to?
Social work undergraduate students receive non-means tested bursaries from the Department of Health. How does this affect institutional bursaries and what is the position regarding tuition fees?
OFFA guidance
Full-time undergraduate and, in future, part-time, social work degrees are covered by the legislation that introduced tuition fees. This means you can charge up to your agreed fee limit for such courses.
As all social work undergraduate students receive non-means tested bursaries from the Department of Health, we do not require institutions to offer social work students the minimum bursary. However, you may choose to offer them a bursary.
In addition to the social work bursary and any additional bursary you may choose to offer them, social work undergraduate students are also entitled to the usual higher education state support package of grants and loans. The Student Loans Company does not take the social work bursary into account when calculating any entitlement to the non-repayable Maintenance Grant or Special Support Grant.