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RIS Bursaries

Find out more about RIS bursaries and their criteria

It is your responsibility to ensure your bank details are up to date on RISIS as otherwise we will be unable to pay you any of the bursaries you may be eligible for. 

RIS Expense Bursary

If you meet a select criteria, you may be eligible for the RIS Expense Bursary. This is a £100 grant RIS administers on the first day of your internship, so you should receive it within your first week. This grant is an addition to the salary you will be getting from your employer.

You don’t have to apply to the RIS Expense Bursary; if you are eligible, you will get it automatically.

In order to be eligible for the RIS Expense Bursary, you must be a UK undergraduate student and meet one of the following criteria:

  • You have declared a disability
  • Come from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background
  • Your home postcode to be in an area ranked quintile 1 or 2 in the government's Index of Multiple Deprivation. The Index of Multiple Deprivation is the official measure of relative deprivation for small areas (or neighbourhoods) in England.  The Index of Multiple Deprivation ranks every small area in England from 1 (most deprived area) to 32,844 (least deprived area)” The government ranks postcodes by deciles, with 1 being the most deprived and 10 being the least deprived. This has been converted to quintiles for use in Higher Education where 1 is the most deprived and 5 the least. IMD will differ depending on country of residence, covering students in England, Wales and Scotland. You can search if your postcode meets this criterion via the Postcode Lookup on the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government website. 
  • Your home postcode to be ranked in an area quintile 1 or 2 in the Participation of Local Areas (POLAR). The participation of local areas (POLAR) classification groups areas across the UK based on the proportion of young people who participate in higher education. It looks at how likely young people are to participate in higher education across the UK and shows how this varies by area. POLAR classifies local areas into five groups - or quintiles - based on the proportion of young people who enter higher education aged 18 or 19 years old. Quintile one shows the lowest rate of participation. Quintile five shows the highest rate of participation. To check if your postcode meets this criterion, you can use the 'search by postcode' function on the Office for Students website.

You don’t have to apply to the RIS Expense Bursary. If you’ve successfully secured an internship through RIS and you are eligible, you will get it automatically. We will always tell you if you’re due to get the bursary in the ‘Congratulations’ email we send you. If you think you should have received the bursary but did not or if we told you it was coming but has not reached you yet, please check your ‘Congratulations’ email from RIS – does it mention the bursary?

  1. No - you are not eligible. You can always send us a message on ris@reading.ac.uk if you think this is incorrect
  2. Yes - you are eligible and should get the bursary. It is administered on your first day and should be in your account within a few weeks. If you haven’t received it by week 3, please check that your bank details are updated on RISIS. If you still don’t receive it after updating your bank details, contact us on ris@reading.ac.uk.