As a student parent, you are entitled to apply for additional funding, such as, parents learning allowance, maintenance loan, special support grant, childcare grant, tuition fee grant and university bursary and scholarships. These are generally applied for alongside your student loan application and accessed online. However, funding is being progressively cut and it is becoming more and more difficult to fund University studies, particularly if you have other care/family financial responsibilities. Some new funding initiatives are available (e.g. Discretionary Learner Support) and links are listed below. For many loans and grants you must have lived in the UK for 3 years before studying and the paperwork can be lengthy but worth it. After the initial student funding applications have been completed to start studying, the main hardship fund available to student-parents is Access to Learning Fund; a financial lifeline. This can be used to assist with HE childcare funding (85% of childcare costs is the maximum available), but this is becoming more scarce. For International student-parents there are other hardships funds available at the discretion of the particular institution you are applying from, which draw on private funds. For example, at De Montfort University, there is also the opportunity to apply for additional funding from the VC FUND. Hardship funds tend to change and it is worth searching online for possible grants (e.g, the FAMILY ACTION EDUCATIONAL GRANT).