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@Velocio
Having thought about this, I can't think how it's not just a £500 bank loan.
That's the only way to do the money side of it... the remaining aspect is how to do the tax avoidance aspect. But for that you would need to somehow officially confirm the full-time student status.
So I agree with your idea that the SLC could operate a scheme to hand out a voucher or something in which you could obtain the bike at a discount from a specific supplier (say, Evans).
The money aspect is too much risk for the SLC to take on though, so either you have your own cash or you obtain a loan for it. What could be done is that there could be an agreement between the SLC and a bank such that the loan was taken out in an applicants name but the cash provided directly to the SLC as administrators of the scheme.
This all is a potentially lucrative scheme for the SLC as most large chains offer affiliate schemes which are worth very little to most entities but for a university sending that many sales it could actually cover the admin costs.
All-in-all... I think it's viable. But it require buy-in from a student/university organisation to administer it, and the best version of the scheme would require buy-in from a bank too.
Very good idea though.