When thinking about going to university you will have two key costs to consider. Firstly, the cost of tuition fees for your chosen course of study and secondly, the living costs you will need to budget for. For each of these costs, financial support is available from Student Finance England (SFE) for every eligible student to access.
If you are an eligible full-time UK undergraduate student you can
apply for a tuition fee loan to cover the full cost of your fees each year. The tuition fee loan is repayable - but not until you’ve left university and your income is over the repayment threshold.
Full-time students can also apply for financial support for help with living costs such as food, travel and accommodation. This support is in the form of a repayable maintenance loan. The amount of maintenance loan you can get depends on where you live, where you study and your household income.
If you are a student applying from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland you can find out more about your entitlements here:
Student loans are different to other types of loan. Below are the key facts about student loan repayments:
Your repayments automatically stop if either:
Eligible part-time students can apply to Student Finance England (SFE) for a tuition fee loan - this covers the cost of your course and a maintenance loan to help towards your living costs.
You can apply for a tuition fee loan for each year of your course. A tuition fee loan is available for all eligible students to cover this cost and is paid to your university by SFE on your behalf. Tuition fee loans are not income assessed so anyone who meets the eligibility criteria will be able to take out a loan each year to cover the cost of their fees.
The tuition fee loan is repayable in the future but not until you’ve left university and your income is over the repayment threshold.
Part-time students can also apply for financial support to help towards their day-to-day living costs, such as rent or food. This support is in the form of a repayable maintenance loan.
The amount of maintenance loan you can receive depends on household income, course intensity and where you live while studying.
This loan is repayable in the future but not until you’ve finished your course and your income is over the repayment threshold.
If you have attended a higher education course before, this can have an impact on the funding you get for any course you want to do in the future. Please contact a student adviser in Student Life for advice about your eligibility before starting a course.
Our students use a variety of ways to finance their study; some take advantage of our flexible pay-per-module scheme, others are funded by their employer. If you're based in the UK, you may be eligible to apply for a tuition fee loan.
More about online learning funding
We welcome applications from those in the armed forces and accept enhanced learning credits (ELC) funding for most of our undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
The Ministry of Defence’s Enhanced Learning Credits (ELC) Scheme promotes lifelong learning amongst members of the Armed Forces. Providing financial support each year, over three years, the scheme enables higher-level learning of a nationally recognised qualification at Level 3 or above (or approved international equivalent) with an approved learning provider.
More about the Enhanced Learning Credits (ELC) scheme