University Finance:

Tuition fees in the UK

• In England and Wales: £9535 per year
• In Northern Ireland 
  • £4750 for NI students and students from the Republic of Ireland
  • £9250 for students from the rest of the UK
• In Scotland
  • Free for most Scottish students
  • £9250 for students from the rest of the UK
• Part time fees: up to £7145

You don’t have to pay these up front, you can get a loan from Student Finance covering the full amount.

Loan Eligibility: you must be a UK national, Irish citizen or have ‘settled status’.

Where you apply to for a loan depends on where you normally live (UK residents)

• Student Finance England – England
• Student Finance NI – Northern Ireland
• Student Awards Agency Scotland – Scotland
• Student Finance Wales – Wales

Worried about student loan debt?

You will only start repaying your loan once you begin earning above a threshold, so if you become unemployed or get a job on a low wage you won’t have to pay it yet. The threshold varies slightly depending on whether you’re in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, and what year you began your studies. A rough guide is £25000, i.e. you won’t pay anything back until you earn that much. You only pay a percentage of earnings above the threshold – for example, If you earn £30k, the first £25k is unaffected, and then you repay 9% on the remaining £5k, which equals £450 per year. The size of the debt can be intimidating, but it’s worth bearing in mind that most people will never fully repay their debt – it will be cancelled when you turn 65 or 30 years after your first repayment, whichever comes first.  

Living expenses & Maintenance Loans:

Aside from tuition fees, you’ll have to pay for: rent, food, books, clothes, travel etc. Your total costs depend on where you live and your spending habits, but many universities give an estimate & advise you to allow around £9,000 per year for living expenses. You can live on less, although in big cities like London you’re likely to face higher costs.

Maintenance loans are designed to help cover some of these living costs. They are means-tested, which means the amount of money you get depends on your household income, whether you’ll be living at home or independently, and whether you’ll be in or outside of London.

Eligibility: you must be a UK citizen who normally lives in the UK, including for the 3 years prior to your course.

For part-time students, your loan is usually adjusted (e.g. 50% of what FT students get) and your course intensity (workload) must be at least 25%; if it is less you cannot get a maintenance loan.

What you’ll get is different in Scotland, Wales, England and NI; like tuition fees, you apply via one of the finance bodies above.

Maintenance Grants & Bursaries:

Fortunately, there are extra sources of financial support available in the form of scholarships, bursaries, and grants. Unlike student loans, you don’t have to pay these back – they’re essentially free money. 

But you need to put in some work – there’s no one place to find this additional funding and apply. Scholarships, bursaries, and grants are offered by lots of different providers, and all work a little differently (including who’s eligible, how much is up for grabs, and what you need to do to apply). 

It’s worth looking online as some organisations provide bursaries due to different circumstances e.g care experienced, estranged, lone parents, dependant etc. This is particularly the case in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which have more options available than through Student Finance England.

Explore this UCAS page on scholarships and bursaries for more details.

Subject-specific grants:

There are grants available to students of certain subjects, which go towards tuition fees or living expenses. Generally, these are not available for all years of your course. Commonly examples paid by the government are Social Work and many medical degrees including medicine, dentistry, nursing, midwifery, speech and language therapy etc. There are also university and private subject-specific scholarships, especially in sought-after subjects like STEM.

Other funding:

Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA)

This award covers extra disability-related costs e.g. for travel costs, specialist equipment, a helper. We’d encourage any student with a disability, physical or mental health condition, learning difficulty or neurodiverse condition to apply for an assessment because there may be support options that you’ve not encountered or considered before. You can find out more on our dedicated page on the Disabled Students’ Allowance.

University/college scholarships & bursaries:

Universities offer their students scholarships and bursaries too. These may depend on your household income, your nationality, or may be awards for academic excellence, sporting achievements, or community contributions. Most universities have a search tool which shows what funds are available on their finance pages.

Private scholarships:

There are also a number of scholarships which are open to students at any university, offered by private companies, individuals and charities. Sites like The Scholarship Hub collate lists of these, so you can search and find ones you might be eligible to apply for. A great example is the Snowdon Scholarships, which disabled masters students can apply for.

Easy Fundraising:

This online charity-fundraising tool works by giving you some money back when you shop online with certain stores. The version for students, Funds4uni, allows you to sign up family & friends so that when they buy things online, you get the cashback reward straight into your student bank account. It’s not a reliable fixed source of funding but why turn down what could be an extra couple of hundred pounds in your pocket!