The Aspire card scheme gives you money on a card for you to spend in the John Smith book shop or on the Aspire site https://www.johnsmith.co.uk/uwl. Students are able to use the card to buy books, hard drives or anything else which you can may find in store or online. It is recommended that some of it is put towards a hard drive as during your studies you will need to be in control of your data.
This is how the scheme works:
Level 3 (foundation) students – Receive a bundle of free books, selected by the course leaders, and Aspire, to the value of approximately £100 for full-time students and £50 for part-time.
Level 4 (1st years) students (new) – Receive the same bundle of free books.
Level 4 students (returning from level 3) – Receive nothing for that year.
Level 5 (2nd years) students – Receive funds to the value of £100 if full-time, £50 if part-time, to be spent on the UWL Aspire website.
Level 6 (3rd years) students – The same as at level 5.
Therefore, all students receive a total of £300 worth of Aspire over the course of their degree, regardless of whether or not they are doing a Foundation year.
Book bundles are not negotiable – they have been agreed and students may not exchange any of the books.
If students are repeating a year they do not receive anything for that year.
If you have lost your card you can get a replacement from Aspire but replacements may not be needed as UWL Full Year Bursary students can only use their funds on the website and it would not be needed for this.
If students or staff have any questions please get in touch with the Aspire team on uwlaspire@johnsmith.co.uk where they will be happy to help with your enquires or check entitlement status.