Money, advice and support

Financial Help

If you're facing unexpected financial hardship, the Success for All hardship fund may be able to help. It’s designed to support you if your essential living costs exceed your income and are affecting your ability to study.

Before applying, make sure you’ve explored all other funding options, including student loans and savings. The SU's Advice team can help you with this.

You can find full details of the types of funding that’s available to you, eligibility criteria and the evidence you’ll need to support your application on our website. If you are an international student, it is particularly important that you check this information as additional eligibility criteria apply.

The SU's Gender Expression Fund

The Gender Expression Fund can provide up to £50 for students on our Cornwall campuses who identify as trans, non-binary, intersex or otherwise gender diverse. It can be used to buy gender affirming products such as clothing, binders, packers and beauty products, or towards travel to medical or counselling/therapy appointments. 

Jobs

For part-time jobs available to help you gain experience and earn money whilst studying, check out Career Zone.  Their online Part Time Jobs Pack includes resources and ideas to help you get paid to work while you study, both on the Penryn Campus and the surrounding area, plus information on how they can support you with your job applications.

They also have details of paid internships open to our students and recent graduates.

Find more job opportunities on Handshake.

If you are a new student waiting for access to Handshake, there’s still plenty you can do to find work in the local area by filtering searches on Indeed (or other platforms) by location or approaching local businesses direct.

Career development opportunities

The Career Zone runs a programme of opportunities to develop your employability skills and to gain work experience, with additional activity aimed at supporting students from less advantaged backgrounds, including:

Global Leaders Experience: Develop your intercultural skills and combine an educational, cultural and ‘real-world’ learning experience through short overseas visits or online programmes.

Access to Internships funding: A2i funding supports paid internships with a UK-based employer, for students meeting Widening Participation Criteria. Help may also be available to cover travel, workwear or accommodation costs. Applications open in November 2024.

UpReach is a partner charity that supports undergraduates to access and sustain top graduate jobs. You can get dedicated and bespoke support tailored to your needs.

If you’re interested in any of these schemes in order to develop your employability or to gain paid work experience, speak to Career Zone as soon as possible.

Visit Career Zone, (Floor 0, Exchange building at Penryn Campus) and follow them on Instagram @uoecornwallcareerzone for the latest updates.

Budgeting help

SU Advice Service

You can get budgeting help and advice from The SU Advice Service.

And see their easy budgeting guide here.

Debt advice - Step Change

We’re working with the UK’s leading debt advice charity, Step Change, to provide you with free, impartial and personalised support with your money and debt worries. If you’re worried about debt, it can be tempting to ignore the problem and hope it’ll go away on its own. But waiting often makes things worse – so it’s best to get help sooner.

You can get help

• Online: use the Money Health Check for free, tailored support and guidance. 
• By phone: call 0800 138 1111. Lines are open Monday to Friday 8:00-20:00, and Saturdays 8:00 to 16:00. Please use their budget form before calling. 

Wellbeing

Worries about money can be extremely stressful and affect your wellbeing and mental health. According to Student Space managing your emotions around finance can be an important step in taking control of your money. Find out more here.

If your finances are affecting your mental wellbeing our wellbeing services can offer support and guidance.

You can also get free, independent and confidential advice and support on a variety of issues from your Students' Union Advice team.

Beware of scams, cons and fraud

Unfortunately, some criminals try to get money from students, particularly our international students. Some of these scams will seem very convincing and persuasive and it can be frightening. If you’re contacted by someone and it seems unusual, unexpected or just odd, please end the call/communication. If the person who contacted you is genuine they won’t mind you checking and then getting back to them.

• Don’t give your bank account details to anyone unless you know and trust them.
• Be very cautious of unsolicited offers of easy money. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• Be wary of ads that are written in poor English, with grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.

If you believe you have been involved in a scam, immediately inform the Police by calling 101. You should also report the incident to Action Fraud and to your bank if money is involved.

New to paying tax? Beware of tax scams.

If you’re working alongside your studies, be aware of tax scams to protect yourself and your money. Criminals posing as HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) may contact you offering a tax refund or to tell you your National Insurance number has been used in a fraud. Make sure you’re on your guard. Find out more about tax scams and how to report them, on the HMRC website.