CLARE COLLEGE    Academic Life  
  Home - About Clare - Admissions - Academic Life - College Life - Alumni - Conferences - Search  
    

Money

The College Officer responsible for overseeing student finance is the Financial Tutor, Dr Jacqueline Tasioulas.

Bills and Charges

College Bills are issued at the beginning of each Term by the Bursary. Each Bill includes the residential (room) charge and the proportion of the Kitchen Fixed Charge (the set contribution towards kitchen overheads) for that Term. All students have to pay their Tuition Fee - or that portion of it for which they are liable - via the College, in termly instalments due at the beginning of Term. The Bills at the start of the Lent and Easter Terms include the additional charges - such as the bill for food consumed in the Buttery and Hall, or utilitities - for the previous Term. The final Bill, with these additional charges for the Easter Term, will be sent to your home address early in the Summer vacation, except that final-year students will be required to make a pre-payment for the estimated amount, since you cannot graduate if you still owe money to the College or to the University. The deadlines for payment are printed on each Bill.

For 2008/09, the termly room-rents for first-year students in the Memorial Court complex will be in the range £705-980 per term( with most being in the £820-£950 range). The termly Kitchen Fixed Charge will be £107 per term..  The annual cost of utilities is likely to be in the region of £352.

Any queries about your College Bill should be taken to the Bursary (F2) in the first instance. If you would like to speak to someone privately about any problems you may have paying your bill, please e-mail Linda Challinor in the Bursary (lmb30@cam.ac.uk) to arrange an appointment.  If issues relating to your Bill cannot be resolved in this way, you should go and see the Financial Tutor. Questions relating to student finance may also be raised with the UCS Treasurer. Try to sort things out quickly: fines are incurred for late payment.

Grants and Prizes

(a) Awards for Examination Results

Any student gaining a First in their Examinations will receive £100, either as a College Prize or as a Named Prize.

(b) Awards for Music

Up to six Choral Scholarships (£100 per annum, normally tenable for three years) are offered each year, for all voices. The award includes free singing tuition. Holders of Choral awards form the nucleus of the Chapel Choir. Members of the Choir are expected to attend all rehearsals and services, participate in periodic concerts, recordings, tours, etc, and take an active part in the general musical life of the College.

Instrumental Awards (£60 per annum, renewable annually) are offered every year for certain instruments. For details, see the current Cambridge Admissions Prospectus.

Organ Scholarships (£300 per annum, normally tenable for three years) are offered in two out of every three years. The awards include free organ tuition. The Organ Scholar's responsibilities include playing for Sunday morning services and any other non-Choral services and assisting the Director of Music in the preparation of all choral services and practice. The Scholar is expected to take a leading part in the musical life of the College, to conduct and to arrange concerts in consultation with the Director of Music.

A Lester Brough Prize is awarded annually for contributions to the musical life of the College. There is also a Prize for musical composition.

(c) Other Awards

Two Greene Cups are awarded annually, to students in their final year, one for 'general learning', the other for 'piety'.

Thirkill Awards (normally up to eight per year, worth about £200-250, depending on the number of awards) are offered on the recommendation of the Master and Tutors, to graduating students who have played a prominent part in the life of the College. The awards are for travel, whose purpose need not be connected with academic work. No application is needed.

(d) Hardship Funds

`Hardship' is difficult to define in a precise way, but for the purposes of assessing eligibility for grants it is taken to mean: 'being unable to meet the reasonable (in the College's view) costs of accommodation, maintenance, study, and living expenses, whilst having drawn fully on all normally available resources, and not having incurred any foreseeable unreasonable expenditure'.

The College is able to offer a number of Bursaries.  These are awarded to students from lower income families, normally for the duration of their undergraduate degree.  Usually these College Bursaries are held in conjunction with a Cambridge Bursary.  (The Cambridge Bursary Scheme is administered on behalf of the University and Colleges by the Newton Trust.)  The LEA assessment is used as an approximate measure of a student's financial needs.  Bursaries are likely to be limited to students who are in receipt of a (non-repayable) LEA Maintenance Grant, and are on a sliding scale dependent upon family circumstances.  Students from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales who matriculate in 2008 and who miss out on a Maintenance Grant, may nevertheless qualify for a Bursary if they qualify for the means-tested element of the Maintenance Loan (if in doubt, they should complete the application form).  Application forms for both College and Cambridge Bursaries are sent to all UK freshers upon arrival. 

Access to Learning Funds are available to Home Students through the University to help those who would not be able to complete their studies in Cambridge without additional financial resources. Help through Access Funds tends to concentrate on mature students, disabled students, and students with children.  The Awards Committee insist that all applicants have taken out the maximum student loans and awards available to them.  They also assume that the student has a certain amount available to them from other sources.

If you wish to be considered for a College Hardship Grant, you should ask your Tutor to write to the Financial Tutor in support of the application and complete an application form (available in the Tutorial Office) setting out your financial position and showing all sources of income and other resources (eg loans, savings from vacation work, legacies, scholarships etc). Take the completed form to the Finanical Tutor (D5 Old Court) at an advertised Tutorial time. The Financial Tutor may ask to see documentary evidence, such as bank statements or bills, in support of your case.

College Hardship Grants are normally made from the Atkinson Fund, established for the purpose by Edward Atkinson, who was Master of Clare for nearly sixty years. Larger bursaries may be provided from the Heseldin Fund (a recent donation to support students reading certain science subjects).

The College also operates a Rent Discount Scheme, for all Home students entitled to the maximum student loan who are staying in residence outside term. A discount of 50% is automatically applied to the daily rent for the standard lease, and a discount of 5% applies to the rent under a 9-month lease.

(e) Travel Grants

Vacation Study Grants are provided by the University, and administered by the University Departments, to make contributions towards maintenance costs and travel associated with particular academic courses. Directors of Studies will be aware of approved activities associated with their subjects, and advise students accordingly. Directors of Studies have to verify that the study plans were approved in advance by them, and that after the study period the work has been satisfactorily completed. For some subjects, corresponding arrangements are made by the College.

College Travel Grants are awarded by the College Council to enable students to travel on projects that cannot be helped directly through the Vacation Study Grants. The total amount available (c. £5000) is not large, and the awards are made on the basis of competitive submissions. Preference is given to proposals that are fairly closely related to a student's studies (including electives for clinical medical and veterinary students). Applications should be submitted to the Financial Tutor, and are considered as a 'gathered field' in the Easter Term. Application forms can be obtained from the Tutorial Office.

Two other College funds support ventures not so directly linked to a student's work. The same application form (green) is used. Charles Parkin Travel Grants of about £300, established in memory of a former Tutor of the College, are awarded annually to assist students in meeting the cost of relatively adventurous travel. Grants have been made, for example, for hiking in Nepal and Bhutan, Culture Studies in Thailand, research on the forests of Uganda, spotting Barbary Leopards in Morocco, and a study of nut trees in Bolivia. Haselwood Awards are made at a lower level, usually undertaken by an individual, and often involving philanthropic work.

(f) Book Grants

Each year you may claim a partial refund of money spent on books, or on computer software or audio-visual source material. To be eligible for a refund, such purchases must be directly relevant to your course. The current scale of refund per academic year - credited against your College Bill - is: £50 on purchases amounting to between £65 and £90; £70 on purchases amounting to more than £90, and about 50% of any purchase under £40.

Claim forms are issued in the Michaelmas Term, and need to be presented to the Bursary (F2) during a narrow time-window early in the Easter Term. Keep all relevant receipts. The Financial Tutor may require evidence of purchase, and may query or disallow claims which in her view do not conform to the criteria.

(g) Cycle Helmet/Light Subsidies

In order to encourage the use of cycle helmets and lights, the College has a subsidy scheme and allows £20 towards the cost of a helmet and £10 towards the cost of lights (receipts must state that it is for lights and/or helmets).  To claim for either, or both of these, you must submit a receipt to the Bursary within 2 months of your purchase.  There will only be one grant per student, except in the case of an accident that results in the need for a replacement helmet and/or lights.

(h) Gordon Dickson
Contributions to the cost of representing Cambridge University in sporting competitions.  Applications should be submitted to the Financial Tutor, and are considered as a 'gathered field' at the end of Lent Term (receipts will be required in connection with all applications).

(i) Other College Funds for Particular Purposes

If you think you may be eligible for assistance from the following funds, you should in the first instance approach your Director of Studies or Tutor, as appropriate. Application forms (a.f.), where indicated, are available from the Tutorial Office.

Alma Royalton Kisch
Support of Theology and certain aspects of Archaeology and Anthropology, especially for the promotion of inter-faith understanding

Chibnall
Research in Biochemistry; (a.f.)submission via Graduate Tutor

Emperor Norton
Musical enterprises; (a.f.)submission to Director of Music

Phyllis and Hardy Lee Fund
Support for a major musical project; submission to the Director of Music.

Mallinson
Support of Modern Languages

Research Expenses Fund
Help with conference costs and unusual thesis expenses incurred by Research Students; application forms from Tutorial Office; submission to Graduate Tutor

Royalton Kisch
Support of academic Music

T S Skillman Scholarship Fund
Support for Physics Research Students whose normal funding is unable to meet reasonable costs.

William Senior
Support for Legal History and Comparative Law

G R Elton
Support for research in History

Eric Lane
Support in Humanities and Social Sciences, for the advancement of peace and social harmony

George Miles Heseldin
Support for students reading Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics or Natural Sciences

Thompson Bursaries
To help new students coming up to Clare with moving and setting-up costs.

Return to Top


  

Index

  • Bills and Charges
  • Grants and Prizes
  • Awards for Examination Results
  • Awards for Music
  • Other Awards
  • Hardship Funds
  • Travel Grants
  • Book Grants
  • Cycle Helmet subsidies
  • Other College Funds for Particular Purposes

 

    
    Return to Top or Layout for Printing    
  Home - About Clare - Admissions - Academic Life - College Life - Alumni - Conferences - Search  

© 2007 Clare College, Cambridge
Last Updated 02/10/08

Comments to webmaster@clare.cam.ac.uk