Student loans England

Students from England face a maximum of £9250 tuition fees per year. If you are normally resident in England, your tuition fees will be paid by a tuition fee loan provided by Student Finance England, all of which needs to be paid back once you graduate.

Student loans England – tuition fee loans

All students resident in England can apply for a tuition fee loan to cover the cost of their university teaching. This loan is never paid into your bank account but goes direct from Student Finance England to your university. It covers your entire tuition costs, whether they are £9250 per year or less. Student finance will also cover the cost of tuition fees for longer and more expensive courses such as medicine and veterinary medicine.

Maintenance loans

A Maintenance Loan is funding to help with day-to-day costs, such as rent or food, while studying. It’s paid directly to the student.

It’s only available to students studying an eligible:

undergraduate course
Initial Teacher Training (ITT) course
Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE).

Interest is charged from the day the first payment is made to the student until the loan is repaid in full or cancelled.

The Maintenance Loan, plus any interest, has to be paid back but not until the student has finished or left their course and their income is over the repayment threshold.

Applying to Student Finance England

Applications for your student finance should be in early to avoid having no money at the start of your first term. You can apply online and you will need to supply supporting evidence of your identity (usually your passport number) and your parent/s will also need to supply proof of their status and income as necessary.

Student loans England – repayments

Student loans in England, from Student Finance England need to start to be paid back once you have started work, but maybe not straight away. The rules for student loan repayment state that the threshold salary is £27,295 per year. That means that if you earn £27,295 before tax, or less, you will pay nothing back.

When your salary goes above £27,295 per year, you then pay 9% of everything above that. The size of your repayments is always dependent on your earnings, not on the size of your outstanding loans.

If you land a job paying £35,000 per year after graduation (lucky you!) you would end up paying back £105 each month out of a monthly salary of £2,916 before tax.