No Fun(d) For Magdalen

After the catering charge chaos of last term, the students at Magdalen College are experiencing financial issues once again.

The College seems set to enforce the catering charge in the coming year, despite students boycotting the canteen in protest, and is now proposing a rent increase in line with the Van Noorden Index (the Oxford inflation rate) of around 5%.

A soup kitchen set up during the Hall Strike last term.

Staff have justified these measures on the basis that any students who cannot afford to pay their battels or who is struggling with living expenses can apply to the Student Support Fund.

The Fund is made up of donations from college alumni and the JCR website states that students are often given ‘awards’ from the fund in the range of £1,000- £2,000.

The website also says that: ‘The first priority of the Fund is to ensure that no member of the College is prevented by their financial circumstances from completing their course.’

Many students got the impression the fund was under-applied for, leading to a flurry of emails and Facebook comments from active members of the JCR encouraging students to apply and take advantage of the  ‘£7,711,000 that was sitting in the Student Support Fund as of 2011’.

Unfortunately, this approach backfired and has resulted in a 400% increase in applications for the fund this term, according to a Dean.

Although the fund is large, the college’s charitable status restricts it to spending 3.5% of the total sum each year. This includes money awarded via the Oxford Opportunity Bursary as well as the Student Support Fund applications each term.

‘Last year Magdalen awarded more than £330,000 in grants to help students’

The Magdalen Deans are said to be overwhelmed by the response and are having to turn many applicants away, something they have rarely had to do in the past.

An anonymous insider at the College said: “With the development of the Oxford Opportunity Bursary in the last few years the remit of the Student Support Fund at Magdalen has changed slightly which has led to some confusion in the JCR.

Since awards from the fund are made at the Deans’ discretion for those who need it the most, there is no hard and fast rule as to the circumstances under which it should be claimed.

Last year Magdalen awarded more than £330,000 in grants to help students with living and research costs and in the time since the fund has been established, to my knowledge no student has had to leave Magdalen on financial grounds.

The JCR are currently working with the Deans to change the layout of the form and the advice and information that is provided about the fund so that the money that is available always goes to the students who need it most, at a time when there are financial challenges for students nationwide.”

This is a worrying turn of events for the College: If they cannot keep up with the bureaucracy of the Student Support Fund applications now, how will they manage when the rent increase and the catering charge are implemented?