Please note this page is for students who start their course in or after the 2025-26 academic year. If you started your course prior to this, please see our Warwick Bursary (2016-2024 entry)
IMPORTANT - Payment dates for the Warwick Bursary*
1st Instalment = Friday 30 October 2026
2nd Instalment = Friday 5 February 2027
3rd Instalment = Friday 21 May 2027
*These are the standard Warwick Bursary payment dates. If you are a late applicant for Student Finance and subsequently your bursary is approved after the start of a term, these dates may not align with your specific payment dates. Please refer to your Bursary Entitlement Letter from Student Finance England for further details.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the Warwick Bursary you must meet all of the following eligibility criteria:
You must be a full-time Home undergraduate student for fee purposes and domiciled in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
*If you do not wish to take out a loan you should still apply for a household income assessment to be carried out and request a loan of £0.
You must have a family income of £42,875 or below, as assessed by SFE, SFNI or SAAS
If you are a MBChB student in years 2-4 where the Maintenance Loan is non-means-tested, you should apply for a household income assessment to be carried out. See further information in the MBChB Years 2-4 section below.
Awards
The amount of award that you can receive from the Warwick Bursary depends upon your annual household income (as assessed by your student support awarding body). Awards are paid on a sliding scale of £500 - £2,500 per academic year, which is demonstrated in the table below.
Annual Household Income
Warwick Bursary
£0 - £25,000
£2,500
£25,000.01 - £35,000
£1,250
£35,000.01 - £42,875
£500
For the 2026-27 academic year, household income will be taken from the 2024-25 tax year and will depend on the people you live with: your parent(s)/carer(s), your parent/carer and their partner or your partner. For more information on how your income is assessed, see our web page on student support for 2025 entryLink opens in a new window.
Application
You do not need to apply for the Warwick Bursary. Student Funding Support receives a list of potentially eligible students from the student support awarding bodies (SFE, SFNI and SAAS) and subsequently checks whether each student meets the remaining criteria outlined above.
Please note: students in years 2-4 of the MBChB course will need to request an income assessment as this will not be carried out automatically. Find more information below.
We will start carrying out eligibility checks and notifying eligible students who have a completed student support application from the end of August each year. If your student support application is still in progress at the end of August, you should expect to hear from us within 8 weeks of your application being complete.
If you are approved for a Warwick Bursary, you will receive an email to the account you have registered with your student support awarding body. Here you can find details about your award, including payment dates.
MBChB Years 2-4
In years 2-4, the student support awarding bodies (SFE, SFNI and SAAS) don't carry out income assessments as these are not needed for the reduced-rate loan. However, we need this information to calculate your bursary entitlement, so you must request an income assessment from them. It can take up to six weeks for your awarding body to complete this process. See below for how to request a household income assessment depending on your awarding body:
Complete and return an 'Applying for student finance based on household income form' from Student Finance England. Make sure you choose the correct form for the year you are applying for.
You should include a covering letter saying that you are requesting a household income assessment for your university to determine your eligibility for a Higher Education Bursary. We have created a covering letter template for you to use.
Unless you are an independent student, your parent(s) or partner should also return a completed 'PFF2: Assessment of financial circumstances' to Student Finance England.
Return a completed 'PFF2: Assessment of financial circumstance' form to Student Finance Northern Ireland (SFNI). Make sure you choose the correct form for the year you are applying for.
You should include a covering letter saying that you are requesting a household income assessment for your university to determine your eligibility for a Higher Education Bursary. We have created a covering letter templateLink opens in a new window for you to use.
The Warwick Bursary is paid directly into the same bank account that you registered when applying for your Maintenance Loan. Therefore, you do not need to provide Student Funding Support with your bank details.
The Warwick Bursary is paid in three equal termly instalments on the Friday of Week 4 of each term. Your exact payment dates will be outlined in your confirmation letter (within your Student Finance England portal).
If you are a late applicant for Student Finance and subsequently your Warwick Bursary is approved after the start of term, your payment dates may not align with the standard dates. Please refer to your confirmation letter for further details.
Please note that we cannot make Warwick Bursary payments for retrospective academic years. However, as long as we receive your household income information from your student support awarding body in time to approve your award before the end of the academic year, we will still pay you the full amount for that year.
Warwick Bursary payments will stop if you take temporary withdrawal, but can be restarted if, on return to study, you continue to meet all of the eligibility criteria (awards will be prorated depending on the date a student returns to study). Your payments will stop completely if you permanently withdraw.
FAQ's
You do not have to take out a Tuition Fee Loan or Maintenance Loan in order to be eligible for a Warwick Bursary but we do need to be able to see that you are eligible for these loans and what your family income has been assessed as. If you wish to be considered for a Warwick Bursary you should make an application to Student Finance England (or Student Finance Northern Ireland / Student Awards Agency Scotland as appropriate), apply for a household income assessment to be carried out and request a loan of £0.
As long as you meet the rest of the eligibility criteria you can apply separately for your household income to be assessed. You can find more information in the MBChB Years 2-4 section.
Students with a family income of over £42,875 are ineligible to receive the Warwick Bursary. This is to ensure that our support is targeted at those students most in need of additional financial support during their studies.
Students remain on the scheme that applied during their first year of study. You will therefore continue to receive the 2024 Warwick Bursary support package providing that you continue to meet all the 2024 Warwick Bursary eligibility criteria.
The scheme that students are on is determined by the year in which they first started to study. Students commencing their course in 2025 will receive the new 2025 Warwick Bursary support package if they meet the eligibility criteria.
The Warwick Bursary is for undergraduate students domiciled in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland only. Students domiciled in Wales are ineligible for the Warwick Bursary as they can access a more generous financial support package from Student Finance Wales than students from elsewhere in the UK. This increased support may be in the form of a maintenance loan and in some cases a non-repayable Welsh Government Learning Grant.
If your family income has been reassessed during the academic year as being over £42,875, you will no longer meet the criteria for a Warwick Bursary and will not receive any further payments for the relevant year. We will not ask you to repay any payments that have already been made to you prior to the date of reassessment.
If your family income has been reassessed during the academic year as being under £42,875 and you meet the rest of the eligibility criteria you will become eligible for the Warwick Bursary and will be entitled to the full award for the year.
You will automatically be transferred to the new level of bursary that you are now entitled to and your future payments will be recalculated so that you receive the full amount you are entitled to over the year.
You will automatically be transferred to the new level of bursary that you are now entitled to and your future payments will be recalculated so that you receive the full amount you are entitled to over the year. In some circumstances, this may mean that you have already received the full amount that you are entitled to so you will not receive any further payments. We will not ask you to repay any payments that have already been made to you prior to the date of reassessment.
You will be ineligible to receive the Warwick Bursary while you are temporarily withdrawn from your course. Your payments will restart once your period of withdrawal ends and you recommence your course, providing that you continue to meet all the Warwick Bursary eligibility criteria. You will remain on the scheme that applied during your first year of study.
You will continue to receive your Warwick Bursary during your repeat year of study if you are in attendance, providing that you continue to meet all the Warwick Bursary eligibility criteria. Students who repeat a year of study without attendance are ineligible to receive the Warwick Bursary during that year but payments will restart when your attendance resumes, providing that you continue to meet all the Warwick Bursary eligibility criteria. You will remain on the scheme that applied during your first year of study.
