Question: Why was Uniaid formed?

Alistair Lomax: Uniaid was formed in 2001, in response to research conducted by Unite and MORI which gave an early indication of some of the issues surrounding the changes in student finance.

Question: What is Uniaid's mission?

Alistair Lomax: Our mission is to help students overcome financial hurdles to higher education, and we do that in two ways: One is by providing accommodation bursaries, which is free accommodation to those who otherwise would not be able to go to university. Accommodation being the single largest significant identifiable cost and for many a deterrent.

That service was started by a gift from Unite, the student housing provider, and now we are working with 22 partner universities across the UK.

The other side of our work is using interactive games and tools to help people understand the financial consequences of their decisions and behaviour during higher education.

Question: Who is involved in Uniaid?

Alistair Lomax: Our board is chaired by Professor Deian Hopkin, who is vice chancellor of the London South Bank University.

Students are involved with everything we do including our board and steering group.

Our main financial supporters are HSBC, the Learning and Skills Council, Unite, Slough Estates, the Work Bank, Universities UK and we have recently had news of a HEFCE grant working in partnership with our Aimhigher partners in London and Merseyside.

Since formation we have had over a million users of our online service.

Question: What are the next steps for your organisation?

Alistair Lomax: We are currently leading a series of discussion breakfasts to help us define our next steps. We are working in a new problem area and as such are breaking new ground.

The immediate steps over the next year are to develop teaching resource material so student ambassadors and advisors can make our online materials available in schools.

We are developing a sequel to our smash hit ‘Student Survivor’ game which we hope will be out in April.

We have plans to recruit and expand the organisation to meet the challenges ahead and it is currently a very exciting time for us.

Question: How does Uniaid plan to keep up with the problems UK students are facing?

Alistair Lomax: We attempt to approach everything from a student's point of view and we move forward by listening to students and understanding the problems they are facing on the ground through student representation and having regular discussions forums.

Question: What are the main issues Uniaid faces this year?

Alistair Lomax: We are dealing in a charitable area which has been a lower priority for giving in the UK, namely education.

We have a constant issue about the sustainability of core funding, which is not unusual but we need to make sure we are here for the long term.

We have made great headway but there is a lot of work in the next year or two to make sure we are here to help students in the long term.

Question: What could the government do to help Uniaid?

Alistair Lomax: The government are already doing a lot and we are keeping a dialogue going with them.

The minister for higher education and lifelong learning, Bill Rammell, has recently been involved in two Uniaid events and his moral and practical support has really helped open doors for us.

We would like to continue working in very constructive way with the government.

The pattern we have been following is that we have been addressing a new an emerging social problem which didn’t really have any definition when we started.

We have approached it from an independent angle: independent from government and the sector.

We have put something together which is new and innovative and that is now, for the final piece of the jigsaw, being used and embraced by people in universities and by young people.

We feel that this is a very positive way forward and is a role model for what a charity can do as opposed to universities themselves.

We have come through quite a tricky start-up working with a problem that is quite uncomfortable for people. Now we have put together some tools which are massively popular and have been a proven help to a lot of people. With some government funding we now feel we are doing something that is quite centre stage.

We feel very positive about the future and our working relationship with government.