A new Ci Research survey for student funding website Student Cash Point (www.studentcashpoint.co.uk ) has discovered that ‘good nightlife and entertainment’ is almost two times more likely to influence university choice than ‘access to student funding and grants’.
With its ‘streetGov’ panel of more than 2000 16-24 year olds, Ci Research unsurprisingly discovered that the top three university choice reasons were ‘course content’, ‘academic reputation’ and ‘location’.
But whilst 76% of respondents believed fourth-placed ‘entertainment’ was an important reason influencing university choice, only 42% – less than half – considered seventh-placed ‘funding availability’ important.
In response, Student Cash Point is urging UK students to discover which of the £160 million-worth of funds and grants currently listed on their newly-launched website they could be eligible for.
Jeremy Phillips for Student Cash Point said,
“We believe hundreds of thousands of UK students every year could be missing out on funding they are perfectly eligible to through lack of awareness. All our research repeatedly highlights the problem that despite millions of pounds worth of funds and grants available – too few students know about them or are actively finding out how much cash they might be eligible for.
“From our research, students are aware of cost of living and Student Cash Point has more than 3000 funding sources offering financial support and easing problems associated with student debt.”
The new Student Cash Point website targets the problem of student debt and represents the first time that more than 3,000 government grants, industrial sponsorships, educational trusts and university bursaries – with a total value of more than £160 million – have all been featured on just one website.
The site covers all UK universities and colleges and features industrial sponsorships from companies such as JCB, Ernst and Young and Astra Zeneca.
Uniquely, with Student Cash Point, students can compare the amount of funding available at different Universities – helping them make informed choices about where to study and minimise the burden of student debt.
Student Cash Point is operated by Ci Research’s sister company and public sector funding experts j4b.
