It's possible to get a Government loan to pay for your Master's course. We explain what they are, how to apply and when you'll pay them off.
Sections
What is it?
Loans of up to £10,609 are on offer to postgrads to go towards their course and/or living costs.
Soon-to-be students who will be studying full-time, part-time or through a distance learning course can apply for a loan.
The size of the loan isn’t based on household income and any other funding the student receives, such as scholarships and bursaries, doesn’t affect eligibility. Find out about other types of funding, like grants from charities or trusts.
Those studying for two or more academic years will get the loan amount divided equally between the years. For courses over two years, each year's instalment is paid in two parts.
The first payment is made after the course start date and only when the university or college confirms that you’ve registered with them.
Extra support is available if you have a disability such as a mental health condition, long-term health condition or a specific learning difficulty like dyslexia. Disabled Students Allowance helps with extra costs incurred by the disability, so the amount you receive will be based on your individual needs. You can get a single allowance of up to £10,993 which you won’t have to pay back unless you leave the course early.
Looking for an undergraduate student loan? Read our guide to student finance here
Are there any conditions?
How to apply
The quickest and easiest way to apply is through Student Finance England on the Government’s website.
If you’ve had student finance for an undergraduate course you won’t need to register again. Just use the customer reference number, password and secret answer you already have.
Before you apply you’ll need the university and course details as well as valid UK passport details (if you have one). Otherwise you’ll need the details from a non-UK passport or a birth or adoption certificate. Get a hold of your UK bank or building society account details and your National Insurance (NI) number too.
You’ll be asked what size of loan you want. Try to establish how much you’ll need for living costs and whether or not you want to put any towards your course costs. Don’t fret too much as you can always increase it later.
To get the loan, you must apply no more than nine months after the first day of the first academic year of your course (for one year courses) or a maximum of nine months after the first day of the second year of your course.
You don’t even need to have a confirmed place at university to apply. Enter your preferred university and course details and change the details once you’ve accepted a place.
Just one more thing – watch out for fraudulent emails from senders claiming to be staff at Student Finance England. You’ll never be asked to update or confirm your bank details by email. If you do find an email like this in your inbox, send it to phishing@slc.co.uk. Don’t reply to it or click any of the links as they could contain malware.
Paying it off
Why it’s better than a standard loan
The key difference between this and a standard loan is the repayments.
You have up to £10,609 which you can apply for from the off or add on later in your course. You won’t need to pay it back if you don’t earn enough - your repayments depend on your income - and it gets wiped after 30 years.
That means that the 6.3% interest rate, whilst high, won't make a difference to the size of your repayments.
Commercial loans are often fixed and rigid when it comes to repayments and you’re likely to be charged extra for early repayments.
Applications for the loan won’t be included on your credit file, so it won’t affect future borrowing, like getting a mortgage for your first home. Only your repayments will be factored into affordability criteria for a mortgage.
Read more about student loans and whether you should overpay here
What about PhDs and DPhils?
You can also get a Government loan of £25,000 to help with your doctorate.
The payments, repayments and interest work almost identically to postgraduate loans. If you have both a postgrad and doctorate loan, you'll make a combined repayment of 6% of your salary above £21,000.
You can't get a doctorate loan if you're receiving Research Council funding, social work or NHS bursary, or have got a doctoral loan before, or are behind on SLC payments.
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