From opportunity to OFFA: The implementation of discretionary bursaries and their impact on student finance, academic success and institutional attachment

This paper presents a summary of findings from a five-year longitudinal study of a cohort of full-time students from low income backgrounds holding the national Excellence Challenge Opportunity Bursaries and similar institutional bursaries at a post-1992 university. This group was found to have higher levels of retention and success, exhibiting particularly positive attitudes towards their studies and their institution. These findings are then placed in the wider context of government policy on widening participation and student financial support between 1997 and 2006, considering whether any learned lessons are relevant to the post-2006 system of university-specific bursaries monitored by the Office for Fair Access (OFFA)