SDG 1 - No Poverty

SDG 1 - No Poverty - End poverty in all its forms everywhere.

Give to Refresh –On 20 February 2020, Bucks New University and

Bucks Students’ Union announced that staff and students were joining forces with the Beauty

Banks charity to help local people living in hygiene poverty. Launching its Give to Refresh initiative,

Bucks became the first university community in

London and the south – and only the second in the UK – to set up a public donation point so that local residents and businesses can also get involved.

This initiative builds on the University’s mission to transform lives - from developing our students’ full potential to making a positive impact to the environment and in our communities.

Beauty Banks links donations of personal care and hygiene products for women and men to local registered charities (including food banks, homeless centres, refuges and secondary schools) so that what’s donated locally, stays local.Jo Jones, co-founder of Beauty Banks, said: Thanks to keen and active supporters like Buckinghamshire New University we are able to support more people in our communities living in hygiene poverty who need a hand-up.”

High Wycombe retailers Lush, Waitrose and Boots supported the project with donations of products. We were delighted to collect 443 products on launch day and a total of 886 items before the campuses closed because of Covid-19 restrictions. These items will be shared directly with local charities registered with Beauty Banks, and the Students’ Union has worked with their charity partners to raise awareness and encourage registration.

News of the Give to Refresh was shared on both the University’s and Bucks Students’ Union’s websites to raise awareness with the wider community. The Bucks Free Press backed the Give to Refresh campaign and announced they were joining forces with the University and Students’ Union as our media partner.Students from our BA (Hons) Film Studies course made a film about Give to Refresh to help publicise the initiative.

Katrina Wood, Leader of Wycombe District Council, described Give to Refresh as ‘a fantastic scheme to be involved in and I commend the University’s initiative in setting them up.’

The campaign was launched to staff on our intranet and we kept staff updated as donations were made. Positive feedback included: ‘Great initiative!’; ‘Brilliant, I have lots of unused items in need of a good home!’; ‘Looking forward to making a difference to others’; ‘Proud our University is setting up the town’s first Beauty Banks donation point’; and ‘Well done for making it so easy for us to support Beauty Banks’ great work.’

Bucks Hardship Fund provides discretionary financial assistance for students to help them access and remain in higher education. It is particularly aimed at those students who need financial help to meet specific course and living costs that cannot be met from other sources of support. The fund can provide emergency payments for unexpected financial crises. Payments are usually given as grants, which do not have to be repaid. Up to £3k per year of study, per student and £150 per week for students with parental responsibilities, per year of study.

We offer loans to students on a short-term basis, usually for one month, which are interest free. The maximum short-term loan amount is £50 a week or £100 a week for students with parental responsibilities or a disability that prevents them from working.

Bucks offers the “Student Success Bursary Programme”, which includes eligibility criteria to reflect our ambition as a widening participation institution. This bursary provides a direct benefit to individual students from low income backgrounds, and supports progression of students from groups currently under-represented in higher education e.g. first generation in HE or IMD 20% most deprived.

Bucks also offers a disability allowance to support students with disability assistance (for laptops and software) to mitigate for the changes to DSA.

Alongside these bursaries to improve still further the access to higher education for hard to reach and marginalised communities (Gypsy, Roma and Traveller; military children; and care leavers); we offer.

Estranged, refugee, GRT Student Bursary and a Care Leaver Bursary, providing financial support care leavers/estranged/GTR students alongside:

Step-by-step guidance and assistance throughout the application process.

Priority consideration for support from the Bucks Hardship Fund.

365 day accommodation in universitymanaged residences for the duration of the course.

Bucks New University is the principal funding partner of Bucks Students’ Union, an independent educational charity with a mission to make life better for students at Bucks. We invest in the Students’ Union because we believe it is important to support their work, not only in supporting and developing our students, but in building links between their members and the local community; charity fundraising; volunteering; citizenship and endeavours to promote fair trade, sustainability, social inclusion and environmental and ecological good practice. In 2018/19, Bucks Students’ Union received a funding grant of £1.4m from the University. The Students’ Union’s unique Big Deal initiative ensures that all students, irrespective of their income, can access recreation, sports and skills development opportunities for free. This ensures that income, and financial pressures, are not barriers to participating fully in all aspects of University life.

The University’s Multifaith Chaplaincy runs an upcycling scheme known as Bucks New Usage which has won a Green Apple Award for Environmental Best Practice. This scheme collects donations of household items from students such as crockery, kitchen equipment and bedding and makes them available free of charge to new students who cannot afford to buy these items. The University recognised that many of its students faced financial difficulties during the Covid-19 outbreak when the part-time employment on which they rely was disrupted by lockdown restrictions. The University took steps to ease their worries and concerns:

Waived the costs of accommodation for the summer term, and dramatically reduced the costs (by 75%) for those students still living in halls.

Wrote an open letter to private landlords asking that they recognise the exceptional circumstances and consider rent discounts or early release from contracts for students.

Set up an emergency allowance, in addition to an existing Hardship Fund, for students to claim up to £250 to meet any pressing money issues. More than 600 students received grants totalling £100,000 through the Bucks Emergency Allowance.

Every Christmas, the University community donates food, drinks, hygiene products and games to fill canvas bags designed by student as part of Bucks Students’ Union’s ‘Hampers for the Homeless initiative.’ More than 100 bags are distributed to the homeless community in conjunction with the Wycombe Homeless Connection charity, as documented in this press release.

We held a student conference with a theme of the impact of poverty across the lifespan. Guest speakers gave keynote speeches to students and practice partners including school poverty (which took account of hunger in school holidays for atrisk children), and health inequalities in care and hunger. Oxfam spoke at the conference about hunger/poverty and the associated inequalities in health outcomes.

Bucks is working on developing a ‘good practice pledge’ to encourage access to higher education from Gypsy Roma Traveller (GRT) communities, by bringing together GRT university graduates, other universities, and education charities.During June the University celebrated the varied and valued contributions the GRT communities make to British society, as part of its commitment to encourage members of these communities to participate in higher education. Hosting an online exhibition of work by Dr Daniel Baker, a Romani Gypsy who is an artist, curator and theorist.