University and College Hardship Funds

Oxford Hardship Fund

The Oxford Hardship Fund is the University’s hardship fund for all students, regardless of fee status or course start date. It provides funds in the approximate range of £500 - £6000, with awards in the latter end of the range normally consisting of a grant and loan combination. Successful applicants must demonstrate that they are currently experiencing unforeseen and unforeseeable hardship and that their situation is sustainable overall (i.e. if the applicant receives an award, that will be enough to return them to a financially sustainable position). For full eligibility requirements please see the OHF website.

Applications are considered on a termly basis; please email hardship@sant.ox.ac.uk with a brief summary of your circumstances and the estimated amount of funding required if you are interested in applying. All information will be kept confidential and only accessed by college officers who need it. The Deputy Head of Academic Office will contact you with a link to the form and details on how to complete it. The College has to complete a section of the form and may ask you to provide further information to help them to do this..

Once you have completed the online form, the Deputy Head of Academic Office will be notified automatically. They will complete the college part of the application form. Your supervisor will also need to complete a section, so make sure to send it to them in time.

For Home fee status students: If your fee status is set as ‘Home’ (not EU or Overseas), you can submit OHF applications on a rolling basis. While you must demonstrate financial need you do not have to demonstrate that your financial difficulty was unforeseen, but you do need to have taken out the full government support available to you (e.g. master’s or doctoral loans). Grants of up to £3000 per year are offered through this scheme; if additional funds are needed your application will be assessed with the OHF applications for EU and Overseas students, which do have more strict criteria (please see above for details) so please keep this in mind when preparing your application. Please see the OHF website for more details. The application form is the same for both varieties of OHF (Home and EU/Overseas). Please email hardship@sant.ox.ac.uk if you are interested in applying.

College hardship fund and loans

The St Antony’s College Hardship Fund is available to assist students of any fee status who are experiencing unforeseen and unforeseeable financial hardship. Like the OHF it can only offer awards to those whose financial situation does not appear to be unsustainable; awards up to £5000 may be awarded and can be offered in the form of grants, interest-free loans, or a combination of the two. Awards are not normally made to research students who have already submitted their theses. For full eligibility criteria please see the guidance listed on the first two pages of the application form.  Applications will be considered on a monthly basis, applications received after 20th of each month will be considered the following month.

College Hardship Fund Application Form

If you should have any questions or would like to discuss which hardship fund to apply to, please contact the Academic Office for an appointment with the Head of Academic Office or Deputy Head of Academic Office.