Who can apply for Student Finance?
You are eligible to apply for Student Finance if:
- You are a UK national that normally lives in England
- You are from any nationality and have UK Settled status
- You have EU Pre-Settled Status and have been living in the EU/UK for 3 years before starting your course
- You are a Family Member (child, spouse or civil partner) of British or of EU Nationals with Pre-Settlement or Settlement and you have been living in the EU/UK for 3 years before starting your course
Please note: Non-UK/EU nationals must have settled status on the first day of the first academic year of the course – which could be 1 September, 1 January, 1 April, or 1 July.
You may also be eligible for student finance if your residencial status is:
- Refugee
- Humanitarian protection
- Child of a Swiss national
- Child of a Turkish worker
- A stateless person (including family members) and you’re a new student starting on or after 1 August 2018
Types of Student Finance:
a) Tuition Fee Loan
Your university sets your tuition fee, and the loan is paid directly to them. You have to pay it back.
b) Maintenance Loan
The loan covers some of your living costs and is paid directly into your bank account at the start of each term. You have to pay the loan back.
Click here to check if you are eligible to apply for a student loan.
Use the Student Finance Calculator to estimate your Maintenance Loan.
Student finance repayment plan example:
Your responsibilities:
When you apply for a student loan, you’ll have to give specific information so that repayments can be collected when they are due. You must make sure that you provide the complete and correct information when you take out the loan and you must tell SLC about any changes during the application process, while you’re at university or college, and until you’ve repaid your loan in full. Click here to learn how to apply.
You must let SFC know if you:
- Change your name, phone number, or the details of the bank or building society account that your loan is paid into
- Change your university, college, or course
- Get a bursary, healthcare award, or scholarship (for example, a Department of Health bursary)
- Change your home, term-time, or parental address
- Know that the start or end dates of your course have changed
- Don’t begin to study, leave your course, or are expelled
- are absent from your course for more than 60 days because of illness
- Are absent for a period for any reason other than illness
- Get married
- Plan to leave the country, or change your employment status (for example from employed to self-employed)