Student Emergency Fund

We appreciate that you may experience financial difficulties while at University. Many of those difficulties can be unexpected and out of your control. You can apply for this fund if an unexpected event has caused financial difficulties and is affecting your studies. 

To be eligible, you need to:

• be a currently enrolled student (note: doctoral candidates who are under examination or on a Covid-related suspension may also apply)
• be residing in New Zealand
• have exhausted all other avenues of financial assistance – eg, StudyLink, WINZ, savings, etc
• complete the Student Emergency Fund Application Form below.

Funding support is available to help with:

• living costs, including groceries
• private rental payments
• utility bills.

Please note that the fund is NOT able to support:

• payment of tuition fees
• payment of additional course expenses
• payment of debt accumulation
• payment of University Accommodation fees or fines.

The current timelines for assessing and paying students is as follows: 

• Applications are initially assessed with information gathered every weekday. The information is compiled into a live report for the Hardship Panel to review each Friday to determine if an application is approved or declined.  
• Payments into student bank accounts are made weekly on a Tuesday.
• Declined applications are followed up with a response (and a rationale for the decline) within a week of the application being made.

End of year closure:

The final day for all applications this year will be Friday 13 December 2024. Payments from approved applications will be made on Tuesday 17 December 2024.

Applications will re-open on Monday 6 January 2025, with the first payment cycle occuring on Tuesday 14 of January 2025.

Hardship Panel:

All applications are placed in a confidential queue and only a very small number of staff have access to them. Only one person reviews the bank statements that are provided. 

The panel who assesses applications is made up of:  

• Associate Director of Campus Life, Student Wellbeing and Engagement 
• Manager Student Wellbeing and Care
• Campus Life Director Graduate studies (for PHD applications only) 
• Manager of Accommodation Solutions (for students living in Halls of Residence only).

If you are unable or uncomfortable providing a particular piece of information that the form requests, or require additional support in completing the application, please reach out to the Te Papa Manaaki | Campus Care team for a confidential 1:1 conversation about your circumstances. 

Confidential application support is available for Māori students by reaching out to either:
Pro Vice-Chancellor Māori team on pvc.maori@auckland.ac.nz
or Pirihira Woolford from the Te Papa Manaaki team on pirihira.woolford@auckland.ac.nz

Confidential application support is available for Pasifika students by reaching out to either:
Pro Vice-Chancellor Pacific team on pvcpacific@auckland.ac.nz
or Bex Toloa from the Te Papa Manaaki team on elizabeth.aliioaiga@auckland.ac.nz

You may like to consider applying for the one of the following grants:

• An AUSA Hardship Grant.
• Study link has a special needs grant and an unexpected or urgent cost fund.
• You may be eligible for a special needs grant through Work and Income.

You can apply for the University of Auckland Partnership Appeal Award, which are given out twice a year.

Additional support resources are available through MoneyTalks.