Our Student Services team provide an extensive range of services and specialist support to people experiencing short or long term difficulties.
You may face family or relationship worries, homelessness, caring responsibilities or problems related to your health and wellbeing including emotional health, sexual health, drugs and alcohol.
These services include one-to-one personal support outside the classroom, counselling, help to access additional learning support and help to access financial support such as course funding, free college meals and help with childcare costs.
We are a highly experienced team accessible to all students on a drop-in or bookable basis. We provide confidential non-judgmental support on a wide range of issues.
For information visit Student Services or contact 01462 424242. Remember you may be eligible to receive free lunchtime meals.
If you have a learning or physical disability we may be able to offer you Additional Learning Support (ALS). You’ll complete an interview with a member of the ALS team who will help identify any areas where you may need extra help with your studies.
If you had exam access arrangements in the past, you may be entitled to have these again at NHC. You will need to bring medical evidence or a signed ‘form 8’ from your previous setting and hand it to ALS staff by the end of September. Further testing may be required to fulfil JCQ awarding body regulations.
If you wish to discuss your support needs, talk to your tutor or contact us via. email at [email protected] or call us at 01462 424343.
If you have learning support input at NHC, it may be possible to complete a full diagnostic assessment for a Disabled Students’ Allowance application. There is a DSA Access Centre where you can take needs assessments at our Hitchin Campus.
If you’re struggling to cope, you don’t have to do it alone. Togetherall offers a safe, and anonymous community to connect from anywhere, at any time.
Students and staff can register for FREE and join an online community dedicated to creating a safe place and starting conversations about mental health.
There is always someone to talk to at the college, but there are also many other organisations available if you need help and support throughout your studies or during college holidays. Click here to find out more.
Our dedicated support coaches are here to ensure you have a happy, healthy and successful time at NHC.
Throughout the year, we hold a number of events to offer information and encouragement about following a healthy lifestyle and making informed choices.
Contact your support coach:
Tel: 01462 424242 and select the ‘Student Services’ option.
Email:[email protected]
NHC is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk.
Safeguarding means:
We expect all staff to share this commitment to safeguarding and have developed a staff policy to ensure this commitment is met.
Our approach covers:
The Prevent strategy, published by the Government in 2011, is part of its overall counter terrorism strategy. Its aim is to reduce the threat to the UK from terrorism by stopping people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.
It has three objectives:
If you, as a student at the College, have any concern about your wellbeing, safety or rights, then you should:
You can also report online terrorist and extremist material online.
It’s really important that you don’t let money matters get in the way of you attending college.
For many students, courses at NHC are free. If you are aged 19 or over, then you may need to pay some course fees when you start your course. There may also be some small fees involved with equipment costs. We try to keep our fees as low as possible, whilst making sure that we can offer you a really great course that will help you get where you want to be in life.
There is a range of financial support options available to North Hertfordshire College students. For more information, please see below!
If you think you need financial support and would like further information, please contact NHC’s Student Services team or email [email protected]
Further education courses
No course fees, the government fully funds your course.
Higher education courses
Usually, higher education is only for students aged 18 or over once they have completed A-levels or level 3 qualifications (not including Access to HE).
Further education courses
It’s possible that you won’t need to pay any course fees if one of the following circumstances applies:
Course fees vary from £4,635 to £6,125 depending on the course you choose to follow.
All students aged 19 and above will be able to apply for an Advanced Learner Loan for courses at levels 3, 4, 5 & 6, starting on or after 1st August 2016. This is a government-backed loan that you can use to cover all or part of the cost of your tuition fees. There is no credit check and the loan does not depend on your household income. You won’t need to pay back the loan until you are in work and earning over £21,000 per year. Once you earn this amount, you will repay in monthly instalments. These are based on 9% of the difference between any salary earned above £21,000.
YES IF YOU ARE:
You can apply for this loan once you’ve got a place on your chosen course. After you’ve accepted your place we’ll send you a learning and funding information letter which you need to complete your loan application. You can do this online on the UK government website.
This will depend on the course, the tuition fees charged by the College and the maximum amounts set by the Government. The minimum amount you may borrow is £300.
You can take out a loan for the maximum amount of your tuition fee or you can pay all or part of the tuition fee yourself. There is no loan to cover living or maintenance expenses.
Once you have completed your course you will be eligible to apply for more Advanced Learning Loans to help you progress in your studies. You can have up to a total of four loans, but only one at any time.
Student Finance England (SFE) will pay your tuition fees to College once the course has started and we have confirmed your attendance on it. Your loan will start to accrue from the course start date.
You will only start to repay the loan after you have completed your course and are earning over £404 per week, £1750 per month or £21,000 per year. You will only pay 9% of any income earned over this threshold.
If you are studying on an HE course (i.e. HNC/HND, extended or foundation degrees), you will be able to apply to Student Finance England for a full tuition fee loan and additional funds (if on a full-time course) to help you with living costs while you are studying.
Please chat with us on open days and evenings, or give us a call. You can also visit www.gov.uk/student-finance to apply.
If you are 18 or under you may be eligible to receive a free lunchtime meal at College if you or your family are in receipt of certain benefits. If you think you might be eligible, visit the Student Services team at your campus to fill in a free school meals application form.
If your application for free college meals is successful, you’ll get £3 a day in your sQuid catering purse to spend on college meals. To pay, you can simply scan your student ID card.
Please remember that if you don’t spend your full £3, this amount won’t be carried over to the next day. All students are able to get a sQuid catering account, so your eligibility for free college meals is discreet.
For more information, visit Student Services on your campus or contact 01462 424242.
If you are struggling with course-related costs (e.g. childcare, travel, kit, uniform, books, exams or lunch fees), you may be able to apply for help from the Learner Support Fund. The fund is available to assist students from low/no income families, those who are living independently or those who receive a state benefit.
You could be entitled to a bursary of up to £1,200 per year. Speak to Student Services if any of the following describes you:
You’re aged 16-18 and are:
Speak to Student Services for more information or email [email protected].
There are a number of ways to gain support:
Some of the other places you could be able to access grants of bursaries from include:
You will need to meet one of the following criteria to qualify:
For more information about the Adult Education Budget visit here.
For more information or to apply, please call us on 01462 424242 or email [email protected]
Herts Access Centre can complete Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) Needs Assessments for a student who has been given a letter (DSA1 eligibility letter) from the Funding Body
Click here to find out more.