This section explains what you need to do to ensure that your sponsorship or funding is showing on your tuition fees account.

If you have funding through Student Finance your funding details should automatically be relayed to the university electronically, providing your funding application has been approved showing University of Cumbria on your funding approval letter from them.  If this is the case, you do not need to provide the information below to the university separately.

The University will only define a student as sponsored if the tuition fees are being paid by a funding organisation on their behalf and the funding organisation will pay the tuition fee balance directly to the University. Students whose tuition fees are being paid by their parents or guardians are classed as self-funded.  Students must provide this proof of sponsorship each year they are being sponsored. 

Letter of sponsorship

The Income and Fees team requires a letter of sponsorship from a funding organisation as proof of sponsorship before any funding is applied to a student’s record. This letter must be on official letter headed paper and a copy emailed to sponsorletters@cumbria.ac.uk  quoting the student number in the email.  Please note that an email itself is insufficient - we require a scanned copy of the official documentation. It is advisable to send this as soon as possible in advance of the course start date so it can be applied to the student’s account prior to billing.  The letter must include the following:

• student name
• student number 
• the course or modules they are studying
• duration of sponsorship that the letter covers
• monetary value of the sponsorship (in GBP) being paid towards tuition fees
• purchase order number if applicable (if this is necessary to pay the invoice this must be included)
• email address to which the invoice should be sent (invoices will be sent electronically)
• confirmation that fees will be paid directly to the University

Students will be classed as self-funded until the Income and Fees Team receives your sponsor letter. 

Sponsor letters from previous academic years will not be accepted unless they cover the full duration of the course. The University reserves the right not to accept sponsorship letters that do not fulfil the above criteria.

NHS Sponsorship

The University has received notification from some NHS Trusts that invoices must quote a purchase order number. If you are submitting a sponsor letter from the NHS it must quote a valid purchase order number. If no purchase order number is quoted on the sponsor letter, then it must be state within the document that a purchase order number is not required by their NHS trust.

Payment of sponsorship

Upon submission of a valid sponsor letter, sponsorship will be applied to the student record and the Income and Fees team will invoice the sponsor for payment shortly after the start of the course.  It is important that you make your sponsor aware of this prior to supplying your sponsor letter to the University.  Should a sponsor default on the payment of tuition fees then the responsibility for payment of the fees will revert to the student.