Going to university today means a bill of up to £9,000 in tuition fees each year for three years. That may seem a lot, particularly when you add in a hefty maintenance loan, but you only have to start repaying when you begin earning £21,000 at a rate of 9% of taxable earnings.
But after 30 years, what’s left unpaid is written off, says Rob Ellis, a student finance adviser at Swansea University. “It’s seen as a tax for 30 years on getting an education.”
Student loans and grants
If you don’t yet have finance in place to support yourself at university, you should allow at least six weeks for your application to the Student Loans Company (SLC) to be processed. Apply online via the website, which will explain how to set up a student finance online account.
You can then use your account to apply for:
• tuition fee and maintenance loans
• maintenance grants if your parental/guardian’s household income is less than £42,620
• additional support if you have a disability, or have children or adults depending on you financially
There is about to be a change to the help students get with their living costs. The government announced in this summer’s budget that all maintenance grants will be scrapped for students in England from the academic year 2016-17. This year’s students get the grant, next year’s intake will have to apply for a maintenance loan - which they will have to pay back. There are indications that tuition fees could rise too for students who begin in 2017-18.
The Student Finance Wales maintenance grant of £5,161 is available for Welsh students from household incomes of up to £18,370, with partial grants available for students from household incomes of up to £50,020.
On the online form, you need to include your parents’ or guardian’s income details if you live with them. A loan declaration form should then be sent to you within six weeks. Once the SLC has processed your loan and any grant applications, it pays your tuition fees directly to your university each year, while any loans and grants are paid into your bank/building society account at the start of each term (or monthly if you are a Scottish student studying in Scotland).
Once you have had your loan(s) confirmed and received any grants and bursaries, it’s all about making your funds last the length of your course.
Bursaries and safety nets
You should contact your university admissions officer directly for any bursaries, scholarships and awards you may be eligible for.
Student finance and welfare officers based on campus aim to promote more financial awareness among students and provide a reassuring “safety net” for those facing financial difficulties.
They can direct you to the many hardship funds and bursaries now offered by universities, help you find part-time work during term-time, and steer you away from pitfalls like taking out “payday loans” (short-term loans with very high interest rates).
Many universities run their own award schemes. Swansea University, for example, is offering £100 bursaries to offset the considerable costs of graduation (travel back from home, overnight accommodation, gown hire, photographs etc).
Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) provides specific help to students leaving care or who are estranged from their families. This support comes from the John Lennon Imagine awards, funded by the Spirit Foundation (set up by the former Beatle’s wife, Yoko Ono); it offers grants worth up to £3,000 over three years.
“We also give a lot of support to student carers,” says Tom Levin, student funding officer, advice and wellbeing, at LJMU. “Balancing studies with caring responsibilities can be difficult, but appropriate support can greatly benefit students accessing the service.”
Whatever you do, stick to a budget – and if you need help halfway through your first year, look out for National Student Money Week in early February, a lighthearted but timely reminder that you have still got to budget until June and that hoped-for summer job.
Funding options in a nutshell
Tuition fee loans
Full-time UK first degree students have to pay tuition fees up to £9,000 everywhere in UK, with two exceptions:
• Scottish students pay no fees if studying in Scotland.
• Northern Irish students domiciled in Northern Ireland pay up to £3,575 if studying in Northern Ireland.
It’s worth noting that 160 FE colleges offer full-time degree courses for less than £6,000.
You don’t start paying back your loan until you earn a salary of £21,000 a year.
Maintenance loans for living costs
All full-time UK first degree students can apply for maintenance loans for courses starting from September 2015. If you live at home, you can receive up to £4,565; away from home and outside London, up to £5,740; away from home and in London, up to £8,009 (rising to a maximum of £8,200 from 2016-17).
(Non-repayable) maintenance grants for living costs
2015-16 is the last year maintenance grants will be available to full-time students in England whose household income is £42,620 or less. Grants range from £50 to £3,387 and reduce the size of any maintenance loan applied for. There is additional grant funding for students with disabilities or those supporting financially dependent children or adults.
Funding for private university courses
The maximum tuition fee loan is £6,000 (for “specifically designated higher education courses”). Students have to pay the difference if courses cost more than £6,000. Maintenance loans and other allowances are the same as for state-funded universities and other HE institutions.
Where to apply
If you are domiciled in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales, you can apply to your own country’s student funding bodies:
• Student Finance England
• Student Awards Agency for Scotland
• Student Finance NI
• Student Finance Wales
For student bursaries, grants and scholarships, contact individual institutions.
Live within your means
Yusof Ali, 20, a second-year biomedical science student at St George’s, University of London explains how he works out his budget
I live in a student house on a budget of £100-110 a week. One time I was away for two days – it cost me £170 that week, so I followed it with a “poor” week and spent the bare minimum.
I eat quite a lot and spend £50 max on food each week, roughly £35 on a night out, with the rest on clothes, books and other items. My course is so intensive that it prevents juggling studies with term-time jobs. In the holidays I work in an ice-cream parlour for £6.70 an hour. I’d worked in one previously and that experience helped me get my current job. I try to save my wages to pay for my rent during the summer vacation when I am not covered by my loan.
The trick is not to think you can go out more often than you can. Consider your travel costs plus, say, a minimum of £10 on pre-drinks, then an entrance fee of £5-£10, a drink in the club for another £5-10 and then food on top. You can easily spend £65-70 a night (in London). Do that twice a week and you’ll quickly have no money left.
Try to think ahead. University societies often charge money, but later during the academic year. I did rowing last year and had to travel twice weekly to the rowing club at £10 a time, then there’s the cost of membership of the British Rowing club and a society subscription (£50), plus race fees and a weekly night out with the other rowers.
Don’t be afraid to shop cheap. Some students tell me they just can’t shop at certain places as their parents never do. I tell them we’re students – we’re allowed to buy our food at Iceland, Lidl and Aldi. I spend a lot of money on food – but it’s for basics.
Make sure you shop around for banks. Santander, for instance, is the only one to offer a free railcard, while HSBC offers an interest-free overdraft up to £2,000 if you open a student account. It’s best to talk face-to-face with banks.
But don’t skimp on phone contracts; mobiles can be your lifeline along with a laptop. Get a good provider for phone and internet coverage – you probably won’t have a TV and so this will be priceless. In my first year, in halls, all bills were included and the internet was great; this year, I changed providers to get quicker broadband. My phone works out at less than £6 a week, which is nothing, and the internet slightly more, but it’s well worth it.
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