Finance game ends student grant fears
'Student Survivor', an online game that provides key information about student finances, has been accessed by more than two million people since its launch in April 2005. Now it has earned the companies behind it a place in the finals of the National Training Awards 2007. The game, which explains bursaries, loans, grants and repayment thresholds, is aimed at encouraging more students from low-income backgrounds, put off by fees and loans, to sign up for higher education.
The partners behind the game are UNIAID, an independent charitable organisation sponsored by HSBC and others, based at 32-36 Loman Street, London SE1, and Epic, the UK market leader in the development of bespoke e-learning, blended learning and knowledge solutions.
Epic was contracted by UNIAID following an open tendering process. The main role of Epic in the context of this submission is to act as instructional design experts and developers of much of the interactive online materials.
Alistair Lomax, chief executive of UNIAID, explains: "Despite significant Government investment there has been no noticeable shift in the social classification within higher education (HE) for 30 years.
"There is a whole generation affected by the fear, confusion and misunderstanding of a burden of cost which, for the first time in England, would be upon their shoulders."
HSBC focuses on helping young people to understand how to manage money responsibly and effectively. "The partnership with UNIAID and the innovative approach that they took to this challenge has enabled HSBC to support financial learning to an audience, which both strongly needs this information and is notoriously hard to engage," said Judith Austin, sponsorship manager of HSBC Holdings plc.
Research had shown that 84 per cent of school leavers believed that student debt deters entry into HE, and that concern over student debt is greatest among the poorest and lone parents.
"An online, interactive, role play and scenario-based approach to learning was chosen as this would give students an engaging experience of the realities and challenges of university life," says Alistair.
"The fact that the learning materials were competing for 16-19 year olds' free time was taken into account across the board in the design, i.e. concept, language, interface, look and feel, use of rewards, etc."
The game enables young people with little or no idea about the challenges of independent living to rehearse and prepare in a safe environment.
p>Since launch more than two million young people have played Student Survivor - many using it for up to an hour.
Alistair added: "Although surveying a captive audience within a school will never be an exact representation of the sort of online audience you get online through viral marketing, this approach to evaluation did show that 97 per cent of those asked would be more likely to go to university as a result of the training.
Entry name: UNIAID; Epic
Entry no: 70268
Region: Greater London
For further information contact:
Kathryn Crookenden, Communications Executive
020 7612 9261
kathryn.crookenden@ukskills.org.uk