Widening participation is a key area for the independent school sector and bursaries have long been the means by which schools are able to make places available to families who would otherwise have been unable to fund a place.
According to the Independent Schools Council (ISC)
“The total value of means-tested bursaries and scholarships provided by schools has increased by over £195m since 2011 and currently stands at over £455m per year”. (Independent Schools Council)
In their current 2021 Census, the Independent Schools Council reported that 179,768 pupils attending ISC schools are in receipt of fee assistance in the form of bursaries or scholarships, 35% of students who would not otherwise be able to secure a place at an independent school.
Managing administration and delivery of these essential bursaries is a significant role and that often falls to the Bursar or might be outsourced to a specialist financial organisation. Applicaa is about to transform this area for independent schools. Working with the Head Office and school teams at the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST), the largest and most established UK group of independent schools for girls, Applicaa has developed a completely new cloud-based bursary management platform.
The new Bursary+ product will use all the best features of the existing Admissions+ application and enrolment management system such as email templates, school branding, and live reporting, coupled with a completely tailored bursary management platform.
Our ‘see at a glance’ live status graphs will display the number of bursary applications for the school and the various stages the applications are at. Statuses include – In Progress, Validated, Awarded, Provisional, Calculated and Withdrawn.
Users will be able to report to SLT and other departments on the progress for each student who has applied for a bursary, the amount of bursary that is available to them and for how long. 
For families, it makes the bursary application process easy and digital. Families log on online and enter key information, much like with our existing Admissions+ platform. For bursary management, they enter parameters such as income, dependents, and other assets for example value of owned property or business assets.
The system will provide a summary of all the information entered for each student. The platform will enable staff to access a central management and processing facility for all the bursaries across one or more schools, particularly useful for school groups.
For more information on Bursary+ please visit https://applicaa.com/bursary-plus/