The news that the conservative government is converting the last of the grants and bursaries for students into loans is not surprising. This extra support, given to the students in most need on top of their loans, can make the difference between getting a degree, and never setting foo on a campus. 

 

For others just like me, though it may not be at that level of severity, it can be the difference between succeeding and getting the honour you desrve, or standing behind a till- when you could be buriedin the books that you came to uni to study in the first place. 

 

I attended university in 2007 as a mature student to read Politics. Fortunately, I only had to pay £3,000 in tuition fees per year. But being based in Reading, our living costs were almost as high as London- minus the extra loan that gets given to those studying in the capital. Likethousands of other students, I had a job in a high street bank. 

 

When I say I needed this job, I mean that I needed it. It was the difference between me staying at uni and dropping out. 

 

When I got to my final year, the student loans company were finally able to treat me as a mature student, basically someone who is financially self-sufficient and not relying on their parents. The fact that I'd been this all along doesn't matter, the SLC had to treat me like an 18 year old unntil I had reached the age of 25. The outcome of this was that I received several hundreds of pound on top of my student loan as a bursary that I wouldn't have to pay back. 

 

This bursary allowed me to give up my job and go to the library. It gave me the chance to research for my dissertation and study for my finals. It was the difference between a grade I could scrape and a grade I deserved. 

 

Getting financial support in my final year made an overwheming difference to me. For the first time, I oculd afford to move out of the halls of residence, and move into a shared house with my friends.  The freedom of not having to man a till in the bank allowed me to run for president of my Students Union, where I successfully campaigned to give more financial support to the first cohort of students to pay £9,000 a year. 

 

This is a government that babies young people with one hand, while with the other takes swipes at them for not working hard enough or taing responsibility of their own lives. 

 

Bursaries aren't huge sums of money that irresponsible students go and spend partying. They're modest amounts of money that make the difference between success and not even getting started. They helped people like me, and many far worse off, improve their lives and get into careers that they'd never be able to enter otherwise. They're also significantly less expensive than most non-means tested pensioner's benefits.