Doing More with Less: You Asked, We Answered

Stephen Jones from SLC's Funding Information Services Team will be delivering a session focusing on care leavers and estranged students. This session will provide an overview of funding available for these students, including care leaver and estranged student definitions, evidence required and funding entitlement. By the end of this session, NASMA members will have sufficient knowledge to be able to accurately advise care leavers and estranged students on the funding available to them from student finance.

NASMA has partnered with the Money and Pensions Service to make Money Guiders available as part of the NASMA membership offer for 2026/27.

This 1-hour session will introduce the service and help you get familiar with the online learning platform. You only need to attend one of these sessions. 

More detail of the partnership can be found in the members area here.

NASMA has partnered with the Money and Pensions Service to make Money Guiders available as part of the NASMA membership offer for 2026/27.

This 1-hour session will introduce the service and help you get familiar with the online learning platform. You only need to attend one of these sessions. 

More detail of the partnership can be found in the members area here.

NASMA has partnered with the Money and Pensions Service to make Money Guiders available as part of the NASMA membership offer for 2026/27.

This 1-hour session will introduce the service and help you get familiar with the online learning platform. You only need to attend one of these sessions. 

More detail of the partnership can be found in the members area here.

NASMA has partnered with the Money and Pensions Service to make Money Guiders available as part of the NASMA membership offer for 2026/27.

This 1-hour session will introduce the service and help you get familiar with the online learning platform. You only need to attend one of these sessions. 

More detail of the partnership can be found in the members area here.

We will explore this year’s theme, Advising, Achieving and Adapting, through the lens of today’s rapidly changing student support landscape. The session will examine how financial circumstances shape student participation, success and wellbeing, alongside the growing complexity of student funding systems and institutional pressures. Reflecting on key sector developments, including the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, the keynote will consider the challenges and opportunities facing student money advisers as they balance technical expertise with holistic support, advocacy and institutional influence in an increasingly demanding environment.

Aston University's Sanctuary Scholarship was established in 2022 and has helped 12 people so far to follow their dreams. Our team consists of an international adviser born outside the UK, a retired asylum solicitor, the Head of Advice Services and a Student Funding adviser. This offers a unique perspective, allowing us to treat our scholars as individuals when their only experience of the UK so far has been an asylum system designed to dehumanise. These students are a unique sub-group of international students whose student experience is paramount. The money to fund the scholarship is invaluable but, it's the smaller touches that have the most impact, from pre-entry to graduation along with recognition and transition support. At Aston, we have learned how important it is to tailor our scholarship to the person; sanctuary seekers, like the rest of society, have a myriad of experiences, personalities and needs.

The session aims to give an overview of the development of our new fund - the Manchester Met Success Fund. Launched this year, the fund is a hybrid bursary/hardship fund and replaces our income-assessed bursary that was previously an automatic allocation. This is now an application-based scheme and allocates funding based on both student criteria and level of need. The session will cover how we came to develop the criteria (using data and evidence-based approaches), what challenges we have encountered along the journey, our evaluation plan for the support and what changes we hope to make for the funding in the next academic year.

Across campuses, more students are navigating the challenges of housing insecurity and homelessness—often silently. When students face homelessness, good intentions aren’t always enough, and the age-old question of 'duty of care' often arises.

Join us for this panel with sector practitioners, where we will discuss support approaches, looking at the key considerations needed to offer the best support to students, in a student-centred approach.

There will be an opportunity to share challenges and best practice, so come prepared to ask questions, not just of the panel, but the wider NASMA audience.