A group of York students has won the opportunity to have their very own I-phone application developed after winning The App Challenge final, held at the Ron Cooke Hub on Wednesday, January 18.
YUSU Welfare officer Bob Hughes has warned students to be vigilant after a student loans phishing scam has been revealed.
Her Majesty the Queen will be visiting York on Maundy Thursday, 5th April, as part of the 800th anniversary of York’s Charter for the traditional “Royal Maundy” ceremony.
A flood caused by a heating system “failure” forced the university IT services to shut down many essential systems on Sunday night, causing problems for many students on the eve of their exams and assignment due-dates.
A student is classified as estranged if they are 'permanently and irreconcilably estranged' from their parents. A high proportion of these are LGBT students, who have been disowned by their parents for their sexuality or gender identity.
The NUS report highlighted the difficulties these students faced in accessing grants or loans. “Because higher education student finance is dependent on parental income, some of these students found it difficult to access the support they were entitled to.”
The NUS campaign is ongoing. Following the report, an early day motion has been tabled by Nia Griffith MP. The motion asks that "the government welcomes this report and begins work to implement the recommendations". The NUS is currently working with loan companies on the issue.
The campaign launched by Fennell and Humphrys is hoping to get as many students as possible to sign letters which will then be sent to the House of Commons. The letter asks MPs to "take the time to read the report" and "support those students which have been estranged".
Humphrys said: “It's a terrible thing they have to be dealing with anyway, and on top of that that have to work 23, 30 hours to try and get by. It is a number of students, at universities all over the country, and it is causes massive problems.” He added that many estranged students end up leaving university.
Estranged students are given access to special grants, but in order to prove they are estranged, formal evidence such as letters from social workers or the police is required.
Fennell and Humphrys say, however, that this presents certain problems: “If a student has supported themselves through A-levels, or has become recently estranged, the only acceptable evidence would be a letter from their parents.”
Since, generally, parents who are 'irreconcilably estranged' from their children are unwilling to provide them with the required evidence, many are simply left without the necessary financial aid.
If you would like to help in the campaign, or learn more about this issue, email lgbt@yusu.org
Non-article, non-cause, non-YUSU position. Leave the committee and do something worthwhile with your time at Uni, eg your degree!!
#1 - You obviously have been fortunate enough to have never experienced either an abusive childhood, or life without the support of family members, or even gone through the dreaded process of 'coming out'. In the unlikely event that the person who has experienced these traumas has managed to recover from their parents' rejection of them enough to attend university, they find themselves without support. To access loans they have to provide the virtually unobtainable evidence of being estranged from their parents and revisit the pain of their rejection - only for the student loans company to have a limited knowledge of this procedure and/or have a tendency to invariably lose these important documents so each year involves the same dreadful process. But this isn't just about financial difficulties - there's very little support available in other areas: an inability to afford the appropriate psychotherapists and university counselling services with waiting lists as long as your arm means there's little psychological relief for these students (no respite from the relentless pressure of university and their own emotional trauma); no one to look after you when you're ill; no one there for graduation - and evidently no sympathy from naive spectators such as #1.
A friend of mine is in the exact position as described above - gay, estranged, but on top of this disabled. This is a brilliant cause that is, as #1 illustrates, under-represented, misunderstood and overlooked. I hope something can come of the efforts of the LGBT officers.
Good luck to them; this problem isn't as well-known as it should be and hopefully with a bit more publicity a resolution can be found 
Very well said #2!
Please note that though some LGBT students face rejection or other difficulties with their parents, this campaign in no way claims that all LGBT students do, and it is not calling for preferential treatment or anything like that. It merely seeks to highlight the issues, and ensure that support is availible for students who are affected in this way.
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