The cost-of-living crisis continues to affect many parts of society, including our students. We want to support you as much as we can, so building on our cost-of-living support package last year, we are continuing to provide help where we can and are introducing some new financial support measures to help alleviate some of the costs you might face when studying here this year.

• New support for 2023-24
• What we will continue from last year
• Ongoing commitments

New support for 2023-24

To help you keep more money in your pocket this September, the University will:

• Provide discounted bus tickets so you can get around the City and region more easily. We will offer higher subsidies to those living further away during term time
• Start a participation fund to help eligible students pay for membership and equipment for clubs, societies or sports teams, allowing you to get involved more easily
• Remove the laundry costs at Beechcroft
• Offer bespoke budgeting and money management workshops in collaboration with HSBC to help you manage your finances
• Organise cooking-on-a-shoestring sessions to give you some recipes on a budget
• Make it easier for you to apply for financial support by introducing a digital application form for the hardship fund

What we will continue from last year

We are proud of the measures we introduced last year and want to continue many of them in 2023/24 to ensure this support remains in place. Building on our progress, the University will continue to:

• Offer free bicycle repair with our friends at the social enterprise, Bicycle Links
• Provide free tea, coffee and bread daily during term time in the SU offices
• Provide free sanitary products across campus toilets
• Serve food at university-organised meetings that request student attendance
• Offer free Beryl bike hours for you to get around town
• Provide advice and guidance on how to reduce your energy bills at home
• Provide weekly cinema nights in Duke Street lecture theatre led by SU societies
• Offer free graduation gown hire to students who meet the financial eligibility criteria

Ongoing commitments

We are continually looking at new ways we can reduce the financial impact on you while studying at Norwich. As such, there are a number of ongoing commitments that we believe are very important and will be continued moving forwards:

• We continue to set printing and copy costs at low, competitive rates. There will be no uplift in these costs in 2023/24
• We will continue to bulk-buy workshop supplies where possible to keep prices low. Although some prices change in line with supply, we will endeavour to transfer savings to you
• We are committed to ensuring inclusivity in the design and delivery of our programmes. As such, course leaders will ensure curricula are designed to allow all students to engage fully, including inclusive access to trips, equipment and other opportunities
• We understand that many of you need to work to help fund your studies. We have therefore rewritten our Student Regulations to acknowledge this and apply more leniency in our expectations around attendance and engagement to allow you to balance your commitments
• Related to the above, we will continue to review the delivery of our programmes and activities at Norwich in a way that is sensitive to the varied commitments and responsibilities of our student body
• We will work collaboratively between our business and employability team and our student finance team to support you to find paid opportunities to support your studies
• We put students first when thinking about commission-based work within the university or in the local community