Emergency loans

If you are experiencing unforeseen circumstances which require money that you don’t have immediately to hand, then please make an appointment to speak to our Student Financial Support team.

In your appointment, we will ask you to explain your circumstances which have led to your request and will discuss the level of support available. Following your appointment, we will then process your request and confirm your emergency loan by email.

Our emergency loan sums are relatively small and must normally be paid back within 6 weeks. Your emergency loan amount will depend on your individual circumstances, and we will discuss this with you in your appointment. The emergency loans are intended to support students in crisis - students who are experiencing long-term financial hardship are able to apply for the Hardship Fund.

There is a maximum limit of £100 per student, depending on circumstances.

Our emergency loans will either be paid to you by bank transfer or cash (subject to availability).

Once you have collected your emergency loan, this amount will become a debt to the University. The debt will be subject to the University’s debt recovery procedure and Charging and Payment of Student Fees Policy.

We do not charge interest on emergency loans, unlike commercial lenders – this means that you will only need to repay the amount that you borrowed.

Your repayment deadline will normally be 6 weeks from the date that your emergency loan was agreed and will be confirmed on your emergency loan confirmation paperwork. Repayment can be made via eVision, using the following steps:

1. Login to eVision using your Keele login credentials
2. Select 'Finance and Payments'
3. Select 'Make an online payment'
4. You will then be able to select which of the owed amounts you would like to pay (for example, if you owe an emergency loan and accommodation fees, you can choose to repay only the emergency loan in this session or you can pay both)
5. Complete your payment and billing details

Once the payment has been made successfully, you should receive an automatic receipt to your Keele email address. Your eVision account may not update immediately after payment, but should be updated to reflect the payment by 11am the following day.

If you experience any problems with making your repayment, please contact the Financial Support Team at student.services@keele.ac.uk so that the team can support you.

We would advise that all students try to build up their own small emergency fund in a savings account, which you can access if you are ever facing sudden, unforeseen financial difficulties. If you’re able to, examine your budget and try to increase your income or limit your expenditure to enable you to put some money aside each month into your emergency fund.

You may find it useful to explore the useful hints and tips on the Blackbullion portal to help you to take the first steps to improving your financial capability. All Keele University students have free access to the Blackbullion platform.