You may be eligible for the Student Finance Postgraduate Loan of up to £10,000 that you can use for tuition fees and or/living costs. This money is paid directly to you and is not based on your household income.
Your course must be provided by a university or college in the UK and lead to a postgraduate Masters's degree.
Integrated degrees and Master of Architecture (MArch) are not eligible.
For full details of the loan including eligibility, how to apply and repayments please see here.
Your eligibility
You can only get this loan if you have not previously studied a Masters or an equivalent course.
You must be under 60 years of age on the first day of the academic year of the course.
The academic year is a period of twelve months starting on:
- 1 September, if your course starts between 1 August and 31 December
- 1 January, if your course starts between 1 January and 31 March
- 1 April, if your course starts between 1 April and 30 June
- 1 July, if your course starts between 1 July and 31 July
You must be a UK or EU national or have settled status, and have been living in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man for three years before the start of the course.
If you are an EU national, you must have been ordinarily resident in the European Economic Area or Switzerland for the past 3 years, and be living in England on the first day of the first academic year of your course, and you’ll be studying at a university or college in England
These loans are only available if you are ordinarily resident in England but you will not be eligible if you have only been living in England in order to study.
You could also be eligible if you’re:
- the child of a Swiss national
- the child of a Turkish worker
- a refugee or a relative of one
- an EEA or Swiss migrant worker, or a relative of one
- under humanitarian protection or a relative of someone who has been granted it
- 18 or over and have lived in the UK for at least 20 years or at least half your life
You can’t get the Postgraduate Loan if you’re already getting a student loan for an undergraduate course in the same academic year.
You can’t get a Postgraduate Loan if you are eligible for an NHS bursary or have been awarded a Social Work Bursary.
If you are studying for two years, you will get £5000 each year. If you are studying for longer than two years, you will still get all the money within the first two years.
Applying
The easiest way to apply is online here.
You can apply up to 9 months after the first day of the academic year that you start or, if you are studying for 2 years or more, no more than nine months after the first day of the second year of your course.
Repayments
You will need to start repaying the loan once your income reaches a certain amount and you will also need to pay interest. The exact amounts vary and you can view the current rates on this page.
It is important to note that you will have to repay any undergraduate loans at the same time as your postgraduate loan.