funding

Postgraduate Committee Fund - NOW CLOSED

This year your postgraduate committee have a significantly smaller budget to work with and due to this have consolidated the funding opportunities for postgraduates into one application. They’ve decided to open a funding avenue which takes into consideration the impacts of the ongoing pandemic, along with what the previous conference fund and social grant were used for. If you have incurred unexpected costs or can no longer afford to purchase equipment or resources for your studies, please read the below carefully and send your completed application (available to download below) to Josh: [email protected].

before you apply

To ensure we can distribute the limited funds as equitably as possible please consider using the following avenues of university funding and only apply to our fund should you have exhausted all other opportunities including your Research Training Support Grant (RTSG) or bench money. Students can only have one successful application in this academic year.

Applicants are expected to first explore the below financial options before applying to the Postgraduate Committee Fund. 

UEA have made their hardship fund more accessible due to the pandemic, you can find more information here. This fund is accessible through student support who you can contact through the student finance team. The website say it’s dedicated for UG students, however, any student can apply. 

If you paid for a certificate to prove you’re covid-19 negative before returning to your home country UEA will not refund you, however UEA has said they'll reimburse the cost for incoming students in January. 

We have our own independent advice(su) service who can provide free and impartial financial advice to students struggling and encourage those who are to do so as soon as possible.  

Please make sure you have read our Terms of Reimbursement before applying. 

The Postgraduate Fund

Applications under the amount of £200 will be approved by union staff, whereas applications over this amount will need to be voted on by your postgraduate committee. In the instance where your application is over £200 you will be directed to first seek financial support from the UEA Hardship Fun (information above). To ensure there are no delays with applications of payments please send your application and subsequent evidence as soon as you reasonably can. If your application goes to our committee you will be informed of the decision within 10 working days.  

We can only make payments in the form of reimbursement upon receiving full evidence for itemised costs. We understand many PGRs have lost income normally gained from employment such as Associate Tutor work; however, we can't make direct payments based on your loss of income i.e. this fund cannot replace what you were expecting to earn. We can, however, give you money to expenditure that would normally have been covered by your AT work, which can include rent, bills, etc, if the hardship fund cannot cover this as it can be evidenced. 

Your committee have split the funding into three time periods ending before a week before the end of the union's financial year. If funding runs out in one period, you and is therefore rejected you can apply in the next funding period.  

1. 12th of January - 21st of March 
2. 22nd of March - 30th of May 
3. 31st of May - 22nd of July 

Funding may run out in one period but does not mean you cannot apply for the funding in the next stage. Committee reserve the right to refuse funding to any student, and please note this funding could stop at any point. Once you have been successful with funding you will not be able to apply again within the same academic year in order to cater to as many students as possible. 

Access the application form here and send the completed form along with all evidence to Josh: [email protected]. Please save the file as your name and only submit the form in Microsoft Word format.

To ensure fairness when voting on applications you will have the option to anonymise your details before circulating with your postgraduate committee. Only postgrad(su) staff and the su finance team will have access to the details you submit in the application.