Funding for English Welsh & Northern Irish Students

Statutory funding for students from England is administered by Student Finance England.

Funding packages awarded by Student Finance England provide support for tuition fees and living costs in the form of tuition fee loans and maintenance loans. You can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan of up to £9,250 which is paid directly to the University on your behalf. You can apply for a Maintenance Loan for living costs, but the value that you are entitled to will vary depending on where you live, where you study and your household income. The UK Government website will provide details so you can see the level of support you might expect to receive.

You may also be entitled to additional support such as the childcare grant and the parents' learning allowance, and may also be able to claim additional support should you study abroad as part of your course.

If you’re under 25 and have no contact with your parents, you might be able to apply as an ‘estranged student’, which means your parents income is not considered when assessing the level of support you are eligible for.

Further information on the types of funding available to English students, as well as eligibility and application procedures can be found on the UK Government website.

Remember that most of your support will be in the form of loans, which need to be paid back. Find out how the student loan works, including any interest rates and repayment terms, by visiting our Debt & Borrowing Money web page.

If you’ve studied before

You’ll usually only get student finance if you’re doing your first higher education qualification - even if your previous course was self-funded. 

If you stopped your course within the first year, you’ll get funding for the same course or a new course when you go back.

You might also get funding if you:

• suspended your course or withdrew before it finished - and you’re going back to study any course
• are repeating a year of your course at the same university, college, or institution

If you stopped your studies for a personal reason (for example, you were ill or pregnant) you might get funding for all of your course - you should apply online with supporting evidence.

It’s really important not to rely on this funding without doing your research.  Please contact Student Finance England directly if you need any help identifying whether any funding remains available to you. If you have already used your entitlement to funding (whether tuition fees, maintenance or both), you may find that you have a gap in student funding until you are able to move on to the next year of your course.

Statutory funding for students from Northern Ireland is administered by Student Finance NI.

Funding packages awarded by Student Finance NI provide support for tuition fees and living costs in the form of tuition fee loans and maintenance grants and loans. You can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan of up to £9,250 which is paid directly to the University on your behalf. You can also apply for a Maintenance Grant if you are from a low-income household, and a Maintenance Loan on top of that. The value of what you are entitled to will vary depending on where you live, where you study and your household income. The Student Finance NI website has full details of the support available.

You may also be entitled to additional support such as the childcare grant and the parents' learning allowance, and may also be able to claim additional support should you study abroad as part of your course.

Further information on the types of funding available to Northern Irish students, as well as eligibility and application procedures can be found on the Student Finance NI website.

Remember that most of your support will be in the form of loans, which need to be paid back. Find out how the student loan works, including any interest rates and repayment terms, by visiting our Debt & Borrowing Money web page.

If you’ve studied before

If you have studied previously on a higher education course, this will affect your entitlement to support. As a general rule, Tuition Fee Loans and means-tested Maintenance Grants are available for the full length of your course, plus one extra year if needed, for example, if you change your course, or if you leave your course but decide to start again.

You may be able to get an extra year of tuition fee or grant support if you need to repeat a year due to compelling personal reasons, such as illness. 

It’s really important not to rely on this funding without doing your research, so please contact your local Student Finance Northern Ireland (SFNI) Office directly if you need any help identifying whether any funding remains available to you. If you have already used your entitlement to funding (whether tuition fees, maintenance or both), you may find that you have a gap in student funding until you are able to move on to the next year of your course.

Statutory funding for students from Wales is administered by Student Finance Wales.

Funding packages awarded by Student Finance Wales provide support for tuition fees and living costs in the form of tuition fee loans and a mixture of maintenance grants and loans. You can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan of up to £9,250 which is paid directly to the University on your behalf. You can apply for a Maintenance Grant and Loan, but the value that you are entitled to, and the proportion of this that is in the form of a grant, will vary depending on where you live, where you study and your household income. The Student Finance Wales website has full details of the support available.

You may also be entitled to additional support such as the childcare grant and the parents' learning allowance. 

Remember that most of your support will be in the form of loans, which need to be paid back. Find out how the student loan works, including any interest rates and repayment terms, by visiting our Debt & Borrowing Money web page.

If you’ve studied before

If you have studied previously on a higher education course, this will affect your entitlement to support. As a general rule, student funding is only available for the full length of your course, plus one extra year if needed, for example, if you change your course, or if you leave your course but decide to start again.

You may be able to get an extra year of tuition fee or grant support if you need to repeat a year due to compelling personal reasons, such as illness. 

It’s really important not to rely on this funding without doing your research, so please contact Student Finance Wales directly if you need any help identifying whether any funding remains available to you. If you have already used your entitlement to funding (whether tuition fees, maintenance or both), you may find that you have a gap in student funding until you are able to move on to the next year of your course.

If you want to undertake a level of study that you have attempted before but did not achieve, your potential funding may be affected. You may have started a course previously and found it wasn't for you or perhaps you didn’t complete a year of study which you now need to re-attempt before you can progress with your course.

SFE, SFW & SFNI will allow you one additional year of the full funding package to enable you to re-attempt a level of study, so long as you haven’t previously progressed beyond this level or used this extra funding in the past. Once you have made use of this additional year, you cannot do so again.

It may be that you were unable to achieve this level previously due to exceptional circumstances e.g. a bereavement or serious medical condition. This is referred to this as having “Compelling Personal Reasons” for needing to repeat a year of study. In that case, you can submit evidence of your circumstances to your funding provider and be considered for the full funding package to re-attempt this level. This is an alternative to the additional year of funding offered as standard, which would then remain available to you for future use.

If you do not have Compelling Personal Reasons and have previously used your standard additional year of funding, then you will not be able to access the Tuition Fee Loan but may still be able to receive a Maintenance Grant/Loan and any supplementary grants for which you are otherwise eligible. Please note that eligibility varies depending on your year of entry into higher education, not just your current course. There are also slight variations across the 3 funding bodies.

It’s really important not to rely on this funding without doing your research, so please contact your funding body direct if you need any help identifying your eligibility for funding.

• Students from England
• Students from Wales
• Students from Northern Ireland

If you are a continuing UWS student unable to progress, you can find out more about your funding options in our Guidance for Repeating a Period of Study.

There are lots of alternative sources of funding, like charities and trusts, that can help finance your studies. These can include grants that can pay tuition fees, living cost support and funding for research expenses so this can be a good avenue to explore whether you have been unable to get funding through the above sources, or are simply looking to top this up.

When searching for additional financial support, it is important to understand that this can take up a lot of time. While there is no guarantee that you will find a source of funds for you, you definitely won’t find anything if you don’t try.

This type of funding can vary from small amounts, such as £200, to larger amounts that might cover your full tuition fee for a year. Most students who achieve success with these types of funds do so because they continually research and apply to everything they can. Numerous grants of £200 can really add up.

It’s also important to remember that most of these funds are competitive, similar to applying for a job. Many people might apply, but there may be only one award available. As such, it is important that you spend time on any application. Carefully follow any guidance notes and make sure your application will stand out in a crowd.

The best place to start exploring this avenue is through our Alternative Trusts and Scholarships webpage. Click on the link and you will find a lot of resources to help get you started. Just remember, we can’t possibly include every fund on our webpage, so don’t limit yourself to this page alone.

It's important to remember that you are responsible for meeting the cost of tuition throughout your studies, so if for any reason this is not being paid on your behalf by a student finance body, you will be classed as a self-funded student and will be expected to meet this cost yourself.

If you are self-funding, we encourage you to think of the tuition fees as another expense you are committing to and think carefully about how affordable this is for you for the duration of your studies. Planning ahead is key, as the more time you give yourself to save money, the better. 

Plan ahead by visiting our Budgeting and Planning web pages.

In most cases, you will be able to spread the cost over the academic year (usually up until April). However, that is still an additional monthly expense that you should plan and budget for. You will also be required to pay a deposit at the point you enrol. Enrolment will not be completed until this is done. It’s also important to remember that the University extends you a courtesy by allowing you to pay in instalments. If you don’t make payments as planned, we may no longer be able to extend this courtesy.

Check out Student the Finance FAQs for more information.