The inaugural Blackbullion Student Festival of Financial Wellbeing ran from the 31st January to the 25th February 2022, with great success! Here’s a summary of everything that went on and what the students who got involved thought about the festival.
I would like to thank the whole team at Blackbullion for providing this opportunity for students to learn more about finance and financial wellbeing. The webinars made an invaluable contribution to my understanding of money, especially by charting a clear path towards a secure financial future. The webinars also shed light on UK policy and opportunities, which was especially important for me as an international student. I highly endorse this effort to make financial knowledge accessible for young people no matter where they come from.
What was the objective of the festival?
The Student Festival of Financial Wellbeing aimed to help all students access vital education about money and discover practical ways to prioritise and develop their financial wellbeing.
75% of students say they worry about finances, with 44% of these saying their sleep is negatively impacted and 42% reporting a negative impact on their motivation and productivity as a result of money worries. So for students to thrive and make the most of their studies, it’s vital that they feel confident and comfortable with their finances – the goal of the festival was to provide students with the necessary information and resources to improve their financial wellbeing, setting themselves up for success for the rest of their life as a student and beyond.
The whole event is opening doors into how we talk about financial education, especially with our Widening Participation audiences!
Which universities & colleges took part?
40 universities and colleges took part in the festival. This included many members of our partner community in the United Kingdom, as well as some of our partner institutions in South Africa and Australia.
We were also delighted to have some new institutions joining us, helping us reach more students. Students at these universities had access to everything that was on offer during the festival, supporting them in building their knowledge about money and putting their financial wellbeing first.
Some of the institutions that took part were:
- King’s College London
- De Montfort University
- University Centre South Essex
- University of Portsmouth
- Imperial College London
- Birmingham City University
- CQUniversity Australia
- Aberystwyth University
- University College London
- Edge Hill University
This is the best thing I’ve had out of uni.
What happened during the festival?
The festival was themed around the four ‘building blocks’ of financial wellbeing:
- Get: how to make money and get a job
- Build: how to build wealth, budgeting and managing debts
- Grow: investing and the risks of investing
- Protect: how to look after your wealth over the long term
Each week of the four weeks of the festival focused on a different building block, with a dedicated webinar to deep dive into the topic. The webinars were presented by Kabir Bali from Jumpstart (the UK’s start-up graduate programme), James Jones from Experian, our very own Vivi Friedgut and Mark Shapiro from Endsleigh Insurance (the UK’s leading student insurance provider).
All students from participating universities and colleges had access to learning content on the Blackbullion platform, as well as a 40-page, in-depth guide to the four building blocks of financial wellbeing, which included a wealth of information to further help students improve their financial situations.
There was also a weekly prize draw related to that week’s theme. The four prizes were:
- £200 pot to help with interview prep & clothing
- £200 emergency fund pot
- £200 for a session with a financial adviser
- £200 to put towards insurance
The winners included students from the University of Southampton, the University of Bradford and the University of Reading.
Student involvement with the festival
It was fantastic to see lots of great engagement with the festival from students around the world. We saw hundreds of downloads of the festival guide, as well as over 1,000 sign-ups for the four webinars and lots of questions from students in each session.
Here’s some of the student feedback on the webinars:
Thank you very much for all this valuable information. 🙏🙏
I hope there will be more sessions like this!
You guys are amazing, thank you on behalf of all the attendees!
Thank you so much, this was such a great talk.
Share with students: student blogs
We’ve written student blogs inspired by topics that were covered during the festival for you to share with your students:
- Top tips for how to get a graduate job
- What credit is and how to build your credit report
- Credit scores explained
- Get ready for investing!
- A guide to student insurance
The introduction to ISAs in particular was great as I had always heard about them but never understood what they were.
We were so pleased to see so many students getting involved with the festival and working towards improving their financial wellbeing, but we couldn’t have done it without you – thank you to each and every one of you that took part, spread the word and helped to make the campaign so successful!
If your university or college is not yet partnered with us but is interested in starting to use our platform, including the Funds Management System, make sure to get in touch at hello@blackbullion.com.
In the meantime, don’t forget to sign up for our staff newsletter to keep up with all things student financial wellbeing.
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