The challenge
The University of Hertfordshire has taken the challenge of increasing the financial capability of its students. By making an effort to ensure students are better educated about spending habits, the university aims to prepare them to thrive in the real world and achieve a decline in hardship fund applications.
The objectives
- Reduce hardship fund applications
- Educate students about better spending habits
- Take pressure off of over-stretched staff
We’ve tried to make Blackbullion part of everything we do, especially for the hardships. In order to receive the hardship fund, students have to complete and get 100% in several modules. It was great to see only one student applying for money to go home for Christmas! Previously there were tens of students doing it. This really shows the impact of financial education.
The solutions
The University of Hertfordshire invested in Blackbullion to amplify the team’s efforts to proactively reach out to a wider segment of students, with the aim of helping students to avoid preventable financial problems in the future.
For the University of Hertfordshire, Blackbullion has become a central part of the student support operation. The platform has been integrated within Open Days, hardship funds, budgeting workshops, and used to raise awareness of financial skills. Due to this approach, the university has seen a decline in the number of students applying for hardship funds.
In addition, The University of Hertfordshire is regularly involved in quantitative research to understand student needs and challenges when it comes to financial management. They believe in employing the principle of ‘Give a woman a fish and you feed her for a day, teach a woman to fish and you feed her for a lifetime’.
The impact
The University has seen a decline in the number of people applying for hardship funds. The combined efforts of the team and integration of Blackbullion demonstrates that a scalable impact can be achieved with the right structure and tools.
For us it’s all been about exposing ourselves to a wider range of students, not just letting them come to us —and we’ve used Blackbullion in order to do that.
