Course Costs and Financial Support

How much are the tuition fees for college level courses at Riseholme College?

If you are 18 or under when you start your course, you won’t have to pay any tuition fees.

If you are 19 or over, you may still be able to study for free, based upon your age, previous qualifications, employment status and income. Your personal circumstances will need to be assessed to confirm whether a fee applies but, even if it does, you will be able to apply for an Advanced Learner Loan, which you may never have to pay back.

What other costs do I need to consider?

Depending on your course, there may be equipment and clothing that are required. During our Open Events, our academic team will run you through everything that’s needed for the course you’re interested in. In addition, all full-time college students must pay an annual £70 campus fee, which is non-refundable. As at other colleges, the campus fee contributes to enrichment activities for students throughout the academic year, such as towards the cost of trips and visits.

A range of computers/laptops are available for you to use in our Learning Resource Centre. If you wish to purchase your own, we recommend the following minimum specifications:

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 or MacOS 13 (Ventura)
Processor: Intel Core i5 10^th Generation or better.
RAM: At least 8gb
Hard Drive: 250GB or more (SSD recommended, but not essential)

QGIS, SPSS and Office 365 are available free to students once they have enrolled.

For Design students who wish to purchase a license to use Adobe Creative Suite on their own device, we also recommend 2GB VRAM dedicated DPU or Integrated Intel Iris graphics.

You'll also receive £4 printing credit when you join us. This can be topped up in our Learning Resource Centre.

How much will it cost me to get to college?

If you are on a full-time further education course, you can access our free transport network. You can also park on campus for free. Find out more about how to get to Riseholme College.

What financial support is available for college-level students?

Our Student Services team are always on hand to give information and advice on financial issues, including grants, fees, student loans, money management and bursaries.

If you're worried you can't afford to come to college, have a chat with our Student Services team. You can get in touch with them now or speak to them at an Open Event.

Financial support that might be available to you includes:

Residential Bursary Fund

The Residential Bursary fund provides financial support with the residential accommodation costs for students aged 16 and above who are attending a qualifying full-time Further Education course and cannot reasonably travel on a daily basis. The residential bursary fund is means-tested on household income and to qualify the household income must be below £36,000.

The Residential Bursary fund is allocated on a sliding scale. The 2023/24 scale is shown below.

Residential Bursaries are only available against standard rooms, therefore students in receipt of a Residential Bursary will not be allocated an ensuite room.

The Vulnerable Bursary

The Vulnerable Bursary of up to £1,200 is available for those in care, care leavers, those on income support and those students who receive both the disability allowance and the employment support allowance.

Discretionary Bursary

As you are a Riseholme College student, you may be eligible to apply for the Discretionary Bursary which is designed to support you with travel expenses, meals and course related equipment, clothing and books/resources, etc. In order to be eligible, you must:

• Be enrolled on a Riseholme Further Education course of study
• Have an annual taxable household income of £33,000 or less.

Complete our online application form via PayMyStudent.

Alternatively, you can download a paper copy of our application form which can be found below. This can be returned as a digital copy to bursaries@bishopburton.ac.uk OR as a paper copy to Student Services along with any required evidence. The successful completion of the application form will be followed by an advisory questionnaire to ascertain your requirements.

Childcare Assistance - 20+ Childcare Fund

The student must fulfil the following criteria in order to apply:

• Be enrolled on a Further Education course at Riseholme College
• Be aged 20 years and over when the course starts
• Use a childcare provider that is OFSTED registered
• Be able to demonstrate through the application process that they are in financial hardship and require this support in order to be able to complete the course.

For further information and application forms, please contact Student Services by emailing enquiries@riseholme.ac.uk.