HELP A BLACK TRANS SCHOLAR FINISH THEIR MASTERS!

We are fundraising on behalf of a dear community member Q, below is what they have given me to share:

Dear Community,

I am reaching out to ask for support in light of the academic institutional violence I am currently experiencing. I would like to remain anonymous for private reasons but I am a Black dark-skinned and trans student in the UK who is studying for their Masters.

In 2023 I suffered from a mental breakdown after experiencing a close bereavement during the undertaking of my Master's. In the same period, the job I had been working to support my finances during my studies decided to let me go. The toll this took on my mental health eventually meant that I had to ask for a leave of absence from my studies. My university granted me this and I was told at that time that I would be able to rejoin without an issue in the resuming 23/24 academic year.

With communal support, I thankfully managed to recover from my breakdown, and I am currently in the middle of the second semester of my one-year degree and have been working freelance while pursuing this to support myself. However, my university has now told me that my request for leave was not processed despite my being told it had been granted and they subsequently withdrew me as a student. To complete my Master’s they told me I would have to rejoin in 23/24. The result of my studies being interrupted without proper explanation and not being classified as an approved withdrawal means that student finance is no longer going to finance the rest of my Master's. As a working-class person, this has left me in the anxiety-inducing position of suddenly having to pay my university £6,167.00 for the remainder of the academic year, by the end of April personally out of my own pocket. If I do not pay this amount I will be withdrawn from the Master's programme completely and will not be able to afford to start again.

As a working-class person my personal income can only cover expected expenses, I have no savings to fall back on and due to my disability, I am unable to seek even more work than I am currently undertaking at the moment. I received a Graduate Scholarship for Academic Excellence worth £1,233.40 which has brought down the amount I owe to £4,933.60. Despite my scholarship, I have spiralled as my university refuses to offer any flexible payment plan that will allow me to pay this money back in a way I can afford. I have even considered going into debt via loans because I have no way of paying for this personally. I feel extremely harmed by my university and have fought hard to complete my Master’s which is now at risk of being stripped away from me because of my university’s negligence.

As a Care Leaver, I do not have any family connections that I can ask for help at this time. I have poured everything into this postgraduate degree and am so close to finishing but in this current position, I cannot do so without communal help. This Master’s is part of my wider vocation of being able to access institutional research funding pools to be able to gather statistics about black queer communities that can help us authentically document and archive the increasing violence we are consistently encountering while living in this current transphobic and anti-Black landscape in order for us to be able to combat it.

COST BREAKDOWN:

£4,933.60 - Tuition Fee (Remaining Amount)

£1,014.40 - Accessibility Travel Costs (4 months)

With deep humility, I am seeking support to raise this unexpected fee that I am unable to afford after fighting a violent academic institution that refuses to listen to me and has left me out of options in an urgent time frame. I am also not the only Black student my university has done this to. I know many of us don’t have it right now so I am grateful for every penny given and even the sharing of my story with any friends, loved ones, or allies. Thank you sincerely for taking the time to read about my situation, opening up to receive help and support is never easy for us; any and every donation is deeply appreciated.