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International Student Emergency Fund

This fund can provide discretionary assistance to eligible international students who are studying at a USW campus and facing financial hardship due to significant unexpected and unforeseen circumstances.

The fund is not available for hardship due to a shortfall in income.  As an international student, you are expected to have made adequate provision for your tuition fees and living costs prior to starting each academic year of your course.  

Please note, if you are studying the first year of your course or a one-year course, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to receive support from this fund. 

Who is eligible?

You may be eligible if there is an unexpected and unforeseen situation that has occurred that has had a significant financial impact on you leading you to be in financial hardship. This situation must have occurred during your current academic year of study.  

You will be expected to evidence that you made adequate provisions for your studies, and that these arrangements have been affected by unforeseen issues beyond your control.  

Examples of these unforeseen issues may include: 

  • Death of a sponsor and therefore loss of expected financial support (you will need to provide evidence of this e.g. death certificate) .
  • Been the victim of crime or fraud and incurred significant financial hardship due to this (you will need to provide independent evidence and/ or crime reference number in this situation as well as evidence of the financial impact). 
  • Natural disaster, political unrest or war in your home country which results in your expected funding being stopped (you will need to provide independent evidence of this, eg, confirmation form the University's international team, news reports, etc.). 
  • Where you unexpected and urgently need to return to your home country for family reasons eg, serious illness / death of close family member (you will need to provide evidence of the reason for the need to travel).  

It would not usually include:

  • Mismanagement of your funds leading to financial hardship. 
  • A change in the exchange rate.  
  • Not having made adequate provision prior to starting the academic year. 

How to apply

To apply, you will need to contact the Student Money Advice Team to explain your situation. You can do this by emailing a detailed account of your situation and how it is affecting you financially to [email protected]. Please use your student email account when emailing us. If it is felt that you meet the eligibility criteria, you will then be sent information on how to apply.  

As part of the application process, you will be expected to provide  

  • Evidence that you had made adequate financial provision prior to starting the academic year. 
  • Evidence of your change in circumstances and that this could not have been foreseen .
  • Bank statements for all your accounts (and partners accounts if applicable). 

Any support provided will be to assist you in completing the academic year you are currently enrolled on or in assisting you to return home if this is more appropriate in your circumstances.  

You would be required to have explored all other avenues of support prior to applying. If you owe tuition fees, this will include speaking to the University's revenue team to come to alternative payment arrangements with them.