Higher education
Higher Education: Money Doctors
The Money Doctors project helps students in higher education become financially competent though education and intervention. It encourages students to confront debt and to take control of their own finances before they get into difficulties. We deliver the project through student money advisors at Higher Education Institutions across the UK, and we train and work with these intermediaries to support them in proactively improving their students' financial capability.
Project background
In 2005, we started the project at Roehampton University to develop new and proactive approaches to engage students to take control of their own finances before they faced difficulties, and to confront debt problems. The project produced a toolkit with an educational resource and a practical guide to setting up the Money Doctors programme. The toolkit also included sample business cases for universities to use internally to secure allocation of funding for the work, highlighting the benefits for widening participation, retention and employability.
During 2006 and 2007, a small FSA team of Higher Education (HE) specialists worked with 19 institutions acting as 'Early Developers' of the project. The 'Early Developer' institutions combined their own experiences and expertise with aspects of the Roehampton Money Doctors model and adapted it for their own institutions.
We then pulled together the good practice, evaluation and conclusions from the Early Developers' work to expand and make up the completed comprehensive toolkit. This Money Doctors toolkit and game has now been sent to all 168 Higher Education Institutions in the UK.
Implementation news
For the 2007/08 academic year, we have recruited a further 33 'Early Adopter' institutions to implement the Money Doctors project. We are supporting these Early Adopters with training and a support network of 17 of the original Money Doctor universities acting as mentors. This brings the total number of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) using Money Doctors to 50.
The Early Developers and Early Adopters represent a diverse range of HEIs in terms of their location, type, size and how they deliver financial support, and each of them will focus on particular aspects of the model.
Throughout the project, we will also consult with relevant national bodies to ensure a co-ordinated approach.
