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.

The session will focus on recent updates to universal credit that are relevant to students. It will look at common problems that arise for students claiming universal credit, and tactics for how to deal with these. There will be time for discussion and information sharing on issues that advisers are coming across.

Each National Student Money Week campaign is deliberately designed with diversity in mind, giving institutions the flexibility needed to reach and impact their students. In this session, we'll hear from institutions about their approaches to the engaging with and delivering campaign, helping you to prepare for National Student Money Week 2026, the theme of which will be announced at this session.

The session will open with an update from the DfE, who will recap the progress made on the LLE to date and how they will be supporting providers, advisors and influencers to engage learners over the coming months. Colleagues from the Student Loans Company (SLC) will then provide an overview of learner entitlement under the LLE, including a more detailed dive into additional entitlement using real world scenarios raised by NASMA members.

The session will also include a short preview of the new customer portal and an overview of data capture within the online application, demonstrating how this will support accurate assessments and ensure learners access the appropriate funding.

This session will cover undergraduate students studying in academic year 2026/27 covering information updates for both Student Finance England (SFE) and Student Finance Wales (SFW) and will be delivered by the Funding Information Services Team.

Detailed information covering areas relating to eligibility, entitlement and policy enhancements for the upcoming academic year 2026/27. In addition to 2026/27, we will look at the importance of right first-time applications and focus on targeted groups such as vulnerable students and DSA and the importance of practitioner engagement to these groups.