In the papers: The Guardian · Issue 859

With money – or more precisely, a lack of money – a continual worry for students, it comes as a nasty shock to hear that several high-ranking universities failed to pay out £12m of government-funded bursaries to students, last year.

The amount of ‘free money’ which is available never ceases to amaze me, but I only ever seem to hear about it when friends have successfully applied to some scheme and ‘cheated the system’. I remember receiving the Student Loan application for the first time and being completely flummoxed by the long-winded, complicated form – and that was working with the guide, so it’s little wonder that applicants are failing to ‘tick a box’. Surely, the government, universities and the Student Loans Company could make more of a concerted effort to draw attention to the unnatural concept of free cash.

Fortunately, the institutions are now being asked to work through the applications retrospectively.

Better late than never, I guess, but a little more communication from the offset could have averted this mayhem from ever happening in the first place.