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Financing your studies

Are you eligible for student finance?

Unsure if you can apply for a student loan? We look at the eligibility criteria, and who qualifies for home fees in the UK.

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  1. CONTENTS

  2. Eligibility for student finance in the UK

  3. Where you live – general residence criteria

  4. Where you study

  5. What you study

  6. Your age
  7. Your previous study

  8. What you need to do

Eligibility for student finance in the UK

Your eligibility for a student loan depends on a number of different factors, such as where you live and what you’re studying.

'Home fee status' is determined by where you normally live, but the tuition fee that you're charged also depends on where you study. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, students from the rest of the UK (RUK) are charged more.

The following is an outline of the common eligibility rules for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Student loan eligibility can be complex – particularly for residency. This article is intended as a summary only. For full details, please refer to the student finance body for your nation or, if you live overseas, to the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA).

Where you live – general residence criteria

Whether you get home fee status, tuition fee or maintenance (living cost) support depends on where you live before you start studying. Your ‘residency’ is based on living continuously in a nation or region, usually for three years. If you moved there to study, your residency may be deemed to be where you lived beforehand. Below, we cover the student finance eligibility for the following:

If you're in the UK

To apply for full student finance from one of the UK's four nations – England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland – the following must apply:

  • You must be a UK national, Irish citizen or have 'settled status' i.e. with no restriction on how long you can stay in the UK
  • You must also have lived in the UK or its islands (the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man) for the three years before your course starts
  • You must apply to the nation where you normally live. If you moved to a different UK nation because of studying there, that doesn't count as being 'ordinarily resident'

Full student finance includes tuition fee loans and maintenance loans for your living costs.

If you have pre-settled status through the EU Settlement Scheme, see Student finance eligibility after Brexit.

If you don't meet the general residence criteria above, there are some exceptions where you may still be able to apply. For example, if:

  • You or a close relative live in the UK and are recognised as a refugee, or have been granted humanitarian protection
  • You’re staying in the UK as a stateless person, having lived legally in the UK for three years before your course

Temporary absence

If you've been away from the UK in the three years before you start your course, you may still be eligible for support. You’ll need to prove that you were lawfully living and settled in the UK during that period, apart from temporary or occasional absences.

  • Short periods of absence as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or taking a gap year shouldn’t affect your eligibility
  • Temporary employment outside the UK may be acceptable, depending on your job, how long you were abroad/in the UK, and whether you kept a residence in the UK throughout
  • If you’re a UK-resident away with the UK Armed Forces, or an immediate family member, you should be able to apply for funding support from the nation where you normally lived before you enlisted, unless you’ve permanently moved elsewhere.

There’s no rule of thumb for what counts as a temporary absence. All decisions are made by student finance funding bodies on a case-by-case basis, on the premise that they should stand up in a court of law – although their decisions can be appealed. For guidance, refer to UKCISA.

Student finance eligibility after Brexit

For courses starting this year, the policy for England is outlined below, with other UK nations being broadly similar.

EU students from outside the UK

Since 1st August 2021, if you’re an EU student living outside the UK you’ll no longer be able to get a tuition fee loan from the UK, unless you're joining a family member in the UK. If that's not the case, you’re likely to be charged the same tuition fees as other international students.

EU Settlement Scheme

If you’re an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen living in the UK and you are registered with the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), then you’ll continue to be eligible for UK home fee status.

Depending on how long you’ve lived in the UK (including the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man), you could be granted one of two statuses:

  • Settled status is awarded if you’ve already lived in the UK for five continuous years
  • Pre-settled status is awarded for anything less than five years; after five years residence in the UK you can apply for settled status. Before then, absence of more than six months in total from any 12-month period could break your period of continuous residence

These determine your residence status – but the support offered differs across the UK nations.

  • Settled status: you’re likely to be eligible for tuition fee and maintenance support if you’ve lived in the UK (or its islands) for the three years before you start your course
  • Pre-settled status in England: if you’re an EU national you should be eligible for tuition fee support, while EEA and Swiss ‘frontier’ or migrant workers (and family members) may get tuition fee and maintenance support
  • Pre-settled status in other UK nations: as above, except EU students who have lived in the UK (or its islands) for the three years before the start of their course may also qualify for maintenance support

You should apply for student finance from the UK nation where you normally live i.e. England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. If you start your course with pre-settled status and later gets settled status, you can ask to be reassessed for maintenance support.

Family members joining someone with ‘settled’ status

If you're a close family member of someone in the UK who has settled status, you may be eligible to join them. The rules around this are complex: see Government guidance for details and check with the funding body for your nation – Student Finance England, Student Finance Wales, Student Finance Northern Ireland, or the Student Awards Agency Scotland.

Irish citizens living in the UK or Ireland

Irish citizens based in the UK or Ireland are covered by the Common Travel Area agreement.

To qualify for home fee status and tuition fee support, you must have lived in the UK or Ireland for the three years before the start of your course.

You could also get maintenance support if you’ve lived in the UK for the three years before the start of your course; you will need to apply to the UK nation where you normally live.

Irish citizens living in the EEA, Switzerland or EU overseas territories

Irish citizens who live in the EEA or Switzerland may still be eligible for home fee status and tuition fee loans in England for courses starting before 1 January 2028, if they meet the following criteria:

  • Living in the EEA or Switzerland on 31 December 2020 (or had moved back to the UK immediately after living in the EEA or Switzerland), and
  • Living in the EEA, Switzerland, the UK or Gibraltar for at least the last three years, and
  • Living continuously in those areas between 31 December 2020 and the start of their course

Irish citizens in EU overseas territories (such as the Canary Islands, Madeira, Greenland) will be eligible for home fee status in England until 1 January 2028. They’ll need to have lived in the UK, EEA, Switzerland or overseas territories in the three years before the start of their course.

The above applies if you’re studying in England. For other UK nations, check with their funding body.

UK nationals living in the EEA or Switzerland

UK nationals (or close family members) who live in the EEA or Switzerland may be eligible for home fee status, tuition fee and maintenance support, depending on their residency. The criteria include:

  • Living in the EEA or Switzerland on 31 December 2020 (or having moved back to the UK immediately after living in the EEA or Switzerland), and
  • Living in the EEA, Switzerland, the UK or Gibraltar for at least the last three years, and
  • Living continuously in those areas between 31 December 2020 and the start of their course

This applies for any course that starts before 1 January 2028 in England.

Other UK nations are broadly the same as England, except for Scotland. Here, UK nationals from the EEA or Switzerland will only get tuition fee support unless they – or their parent or spouse – previously lived in Scotland. In that case, they'd also be eligible for maintenance support. For details, check with the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS).

UK nationals living in the EU overseas territories

If you’re a UK national (or close family member) who was living in the EU overseas territories on 31 December 2020, you’ll continue to be eligible for home fee status in England on courses that start before 1 January 2028.

UK nationals living in British Overseas Territories

If you’re a UK national (or close family member) living in one of the British Overseas Territories, you should qualify for home fee status. If you have ‘settled status’ on arrival in the UK (for example if you’re a British citizen) you may also be eligible for a tuition fee loan. In both cases, you’ll need to have lived in the UK, its islands or the British Overseas Territories for the three years before your course starts.

If you’re from Gibraltar

If you’re from Gibraltar, you may be eligible for home fees and tuition fee support on courses starting before 1 January 2028. You’ll need to have lived in the UK, Gibraltar, EEA or Switzerland for the three years leading up to the start of your course.

Crown Dependencies

After Brexit, students from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man (known as the Crown Dependencies) will be eligible for home fee status in England from 2021/22 onwards. This will be on the basis of having three years residency in the UK or above islands.

International students

Universities and colleges will usually charge you higher fees than home students. These vary by institution and also by type of course. You can check individual course fees on our course chooser – to display the correct fee, ensure you set your location when looking at the course details.

You’re unlikely to be eligible for financial support from the UK student loans system unless you meet one of the residence exceptions outlined above. If you qualify for student finance on these grounds, you're considered a home student and would be charged ‘home’ tuition fees.

For any queries about visas and student finance eligibility for international students, refer to UKCISA.

Student finance and savings

Where you study

To get student finance, you must study a course run by (or on behalf of) a publicly funded or registered UK university. Or, if you study at a private institution, your course must be approved for public funding.

The tuition fees charged by private institutions may be higher than the tuition fee loan you get, in which case you’ll have to fund the difference yourself. If you study at postgraduate level, the same applies – your fees may be higher than the loan you get.

If you’re from Northern Ireland or Scotland, you may also be eligible for funding to study a first degree in the Republic of Ireland. You won't need a visa and will have the right to access healthcare on the same basis as Irish citizens.

What you study

Courses eligible for undergraduate funding

Your course must be a 'recognised' course. The following types of courses are all eligible for undergraduate funding. If you’re unsure whether this applies to your course, check with your university or student finance body.

Examples of courses:

  • First degree
  • Foundation degree
  • Certificate of Higher Education
  • Diploma of Higher Education
  • Higher National Certificate (HNC)
  • Higher National Diploma (HND)
  • Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE, or PGDE in Scotland)
  • Initial Teacher Training (ITT/ITE)
  • Integrated master's degree
  • A pre-registration postgraduate healthcare course (English-resident students)

The above list includes postgraduate teacher training university courses. These are eligible for full undergraduate funding in all UK nations.

Part-time undergraduate study

If you study part-time, your eligibility for student finance depends on the 'course intensity'. To get a loan, you need a minimum course intensity of 25%. This would be a course that takes four times as long as the full-time equivalent, where you study roughly 30 credits a year.

Depending on your household income, you may get financial support towards your tuition fees and some course costs. Maintenance loans are only available in England and Wales.

If you’re a part-time student, you’ll be eligible to start repaying your student loan four years after beginning your course, even if you've not yet completed your studies. But repayments are only taken if your income is above the threshold for loan repayments.

Courses eligible for postgraduate funding

For postgraduate or doctoral study, funding regulations vary by nation. Some may provide student finance for postgraduate diplomas to master's, others for master's only. England and Wales have loans for doctoral study.

You can find the details in our pages about postgraduate finance for each nation. The funding you get will be based on the nation you live in, regardless of where you go to study.

Your age

There's no age limit for undergraduate tuition fee loans or grants. To get a maintenance loan for full-time undergraduate study, normally you must be under 60 on the first day of the first academic year of your course. If you later change course, you’ll lose eligibility.

However, in England, undergraduates over 60 can access a means-tested loan for living costs.

For postgraduate students, loans that can only be used for tuition fees have no age limit (i.e. in Northern Ireland, or the tuition fee element of support in Scotland). In England and Wales, where support can also be used for your living costs, you must start your course before you turn 60. If you change to a different course after that, you’ll no longer be eligible for student finance.

Undergraduate student finance is normally only available if you’re studying for your first degree. There are some exceptions to this rule. You can get further undergraduate funding for postgraduate teaching qualifications, and also to study certain degrees.

Undergraduates who previously started but then withdrew from a course may only be entitled to partial funding. This'll depend on how long you previously studied for. If you get only partial support, it’s down to you to fund the rest of your course.

At postgraduate level and above, if you already have a qualification at the same level or higher the support you may get varies by nation.

  • In England and Wales, you aren't eligible for student finance – even if your qualification was gained overseas
  • In Scotland and Northern Ireland, students may be able to get a loan if they haven't had a postgraduate loan before

Postgraduates who withdraw from a course will only be able to apply for another loan if it was due to compelling personal reasons.

Next steps

If you meet the above criteria, check out our information on undergraduate student loans for each UK nation to find out how much financial support you might get:

If you’re not sure you meet the criteria, check the UKCISA website for more guidance on home and overseas fees. In the information for each UK nation, there are detailed definitions of criteria used to determine fee status.

Everyone has different circumstances – talk to universities or funding organisations directly if you have questions about your personal circumstances.

Note that universities have the discretion to decide each case based on individual circumstances. None of this will affect the way you’ll be considered for admission to the university (these decisions are based purely on academic merit).

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