Student Finance: your questions answered

Now you’ve sent in your application, many of you will be keen to start your student finance
application and to know what support is on offer. Mark-Lee Kelly, Corporate Communications Executive at the Student Loans Company is on hand to answer your questions.

What student finance is available? 
The finance available to you depends on where in the UK you usually live.  

If you’re from England you can apply for repayable loans to cover your tuition fees and living costs. If you’re from Wales, you can apply for repayable loans and non-repayable grants to cover your tuition fees and living costs.  

Students from both England and Wales may be entitled to non-repayable supplementary grants if you have child or adult dependents or if you have a disability, mental-health condition or specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia or dyspraxia.

• Tuition fees 

Tuition fee loans up to £9,000 are paid directly to your university or college in three instalments throughout the academic year. The maximum amount of tuition fee loan available depends on the cost of your course and whether you are studying at a publicly-funded university or college — up to £9,000 — or a private one up to £6,000.

In England, you can apply for a tuition fee loan up £9,000 to pay your fee costs.

In Wales, you can apply for a tuition fee loan to cover the first £3,900 of fee costs and a non-repayable tuition fee grant to cover the remaining £5,100.  

• Maintenance loans 

Maintenance loans help with everyday living costs such as rent, books, travel and other expenses and are paid directly to your bank account, in three instalments, one at the start of each term.
The amount that you can borrow depends on where you live, where you study and your household income level.

In England, part of the maintenance loan will depend on household income — that’s the income of your parents or your husband, wife or partner.

• Non-repayable grants 

If you’re a student from England and your course started before 1 August 2016, you may be eligible to apply for a non-repayable maintenance grant, also paid in three instalments throughout the year. The amount available will depend on your household income.

If you’re from Wales then like the maintenance loan, the Welsh Learning Grant helps with living costs and is paid directly to your bank account, in three instalments throughout the academic year, but doesn’t need to be paid back.

The maximum amount is £5,161, available to students whose household income is £18,370 or less; no grant is available for those whose household income is £50,020 or higher.

Whether you’re from England or Wales you may be eligible to receive non-repayable supplementary grants depending on your circumstances. These include Parents’ Learning Allowance (PLA), Adult Dependants’ Grant (ADG), Childcare Grant (CCG) and Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSA). The amount available to you depends on whether you are from England or Wales.

I’m a student from the EU.  Can I apply for student finance? 

Yes you can; students from within the EU can apply for a repayable tuition fee loan only using a paper application form.

Students studying in England can download an application at www.gov.uk/studentfinance and students studying in Wales can get one from www.studentfinancewales.co.uk.

How do I apply for student finance?

Students from England can apply for student finance by creating an online account at: www.gov.uk/studentfinance.

Students from Wales can apply for student finance by creating an online account at: www.studentfinancewales.co.uk.

What do I need to apply? 

To apply you’ll need to have the following information to hand:
– Identity evidence, that’s your UK passport details (in date) or your UK birth or adoption certificate
– University or college code and course code details
– UK bank details (sort code and account number)
– National Insurance Number

Can I apply for student finance before I've had offers back from university or college?

Yes! You don’t need to wait for a confirmed place on a course to apply for student finance.

Use the details of the course you’re most likely to study as you can update them in your online account later if they change.

Thank you Mark for all your help! If you have any funding questions or concerns, you can ask Student Finance England online.

• Twitter: @SF_England on Twitter
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/sfengland 

Student Finance Wales is @SF_Wales on Twitter, and they’re on Facebook too at www.facebook.com/sfwales.