Funding for Full-Time Students

Your personal eligibility for student finance depends on whether you comply with nationality, residency, age and previous study rules.

Factsheet:  Student Finance Eligibility

Factsheet: UKCISA Residence Factsheet

Ready Reckoner: Quick Start Guide

Have you studied before in Higher Education?
If you have studied before on a Higher Education course then financial support for another full-time course may be limited. You could find that you are responsible for paying your own tuition fees and living costs for at least part of the course.

The following summary is taken from the SFE guide 'How you are assessed and paid'.

Tuition Fee Loans and Maintenance Grants
This support is not available if you hold an equivalent or higher level qualification to the one you are going to study. If you hold a lower level qualification or have previously studied in higher education but not achieved a qualification, support may be available, but that support will depend on the number of years that you have previously studied. Full support is available if you are studying on a teacher training course, not exceeding two years and you do not hold qualified teacher status.

Maintenance Loans
Maintenance Loans are available to those who do not have an equivalent or higher level qualification; and to students who are on a course leading to a professional qualification such as a medical doctor, dentist, veterinary surgeon and architect.

Additional grants
Dependants’ Grants, Childcare Grants and DSAs are still available to those who have previously studied in higher education.

See also: Changing or leaving your course and previous study

If you have studied before, have not achieved a qualification that is equivalent or higher than your planned course of study but your full-time funding is limited, you could consider a part-time study option as an alternative. 

Link: Part-time funding

If you are not sure how your full or part-time funding will be affected by your previous study, contact the Student Money Advice Team for guidance.

Factsheet: Equivalent and Lower Qualifications

Are you an Independent Student?
If you are an independent student then your student support is assessed on your own unearned income, and not your parents household income

Factsheet:  Independent Student?

Are you a European Union student who can get help with living costs ?
Many students from other countries in the European Union can take out a tuition fee loan. Some EU students can also get help with living costs

Website: Students from other EU Countries 

Has your parents' income fallen this year?
Student Finance England will usually look at your parents’ residual income for the financial year 2010-11. But if your parents’ residual income has fallen by 15%, they can ask Student Finance England to look at their likely income for the current financial year.  Phone SFE on 0845 300 50 90 for details.

Form: Current Year Income Assessment Form
Guide: How you are Assessed and Paid

The Tuition Fee Loan is not income-assessed, so you can usually borrow up to the amount of your tuition fees each year; the loan is paid directly to your Higher Education Institution. 

Website: Student Finance England

Maintenance Loan
The Maintenance Loan is for help with living costs
35% of the loan is income-assessed
The loan is also reduced by half of the amount that you receive in Maintenance Grant. So, for example, a student who receives £1500 Maintenance Grant will have their maximum Maintenance Loan amount reduced by £750.

Maintenance Grant
The Maintenance Grant is income-assessed
It is worth up to £3,250 per year. Full grant is paid where household income is less than £25,000 and a partial grant between £25,000 and £42,600

Special Support Grant
The Special Support Grant is income-assessed and worth up to £3,250. The amount of Special Support Grant that you receive will not reduce the amount of Maintenance Loan that you can receive. Income from the Special Support Grant is not counted for means-tested benefits.

The Special Support Grant is paid instead of the Maintenance Grant, if the student would be eligible for Income Support or Housing Benefit, because:

a) The student is a lone parent who is responsible for a child or young person aged under 20 (i.e. aged 19 or younger) who is a member of the student's household and in full-time non-advanced education.

b) The student is a lone foster parent of a child or young person aged under 20 (i.e. aged 19 or younger).

c) The student has a partner who is also a full-time student and one or both of them are responsible for a child or young person aged under 20 (i.e. aged 19 or younger) who is in full-time non-advanced education.

d) The student qualifies for a Disability Premium or Severe Disability Premium.

e) The student has been treated as incapable of work for a continuous period of at least 28 weeks (two or more periods of incapacity separated by a break of no more than 8 weeks count as one continuous period).

f) The student is deaf and qualifies for Disabled Students' Allowances.

g) The student is waiting to go back to a course having taken approved time out because of an illness or caring responsibility that has now come to an end for a period not exceeding one year.

h) The student is from abroad and entitled to an Income Support urgent cases payment because they are temporarily without funds for a period of up to six weeks.

i) The student is aged 60 or over.

Factsheet: Students with children or adult dependants

Parents' Learning Allowance
This is to help with course-related costs if a student has dependent children. They can get up to £1,508 a year depending on their income.

Link: Parents' Learning Allowance

Childcare Grant
This will help with childcare costs for dependent children aged under 15 at the beginning of the academic year - or under 17 if they have special educational needs - in registered or approved childcare.

Link: Childcare Grant

Adult Dependants' Grant
The grant of up to £2,642 a year should help any student who has an adult who depends on them financially. The amount the student can receive depends on their income and the income of their husband, wife or partner and that of any dependants.

Link: Adult Dependants' Grant

Disabled Students' Allowances (DSAs) are grants to help meet the extra course costs students face because of a disability. You may get DSAs if you have a disability, ongoing health condition, mental-health condition or specific learning difficulty like dyslexia. DSAs can help pay for:

•specialist equipment you need for studying like computer software
•non-medical helpers, such as a note-taker or reader
•extra travel costs you have to pay because of your disability
•other costs such as photocopying or printer cartridges

You don’t have to pay DSAs back and they’re not counted as income when working out whether you get benefits or Tax Credits.

More information and how to apply:

Website: Disabled Students' Allowance

Booklet: Bridging the Gap

Financial Support for Care Leavers in Higher Education

Local Authority Care Leavers' Bursary
Care Leavers entering higher education on or after 1st September 2008, and who start a course before their 25th birthday may be entitled to a non-taxable £2000 bursary. In England, Local Authorities have a duty to pay the bursary to care leavers pursuing a course of higher education according to their pathway plan. The study can be either full or part-time.  Care Leavers up to the age of 21 are entitled to this support, and care leavers over 21 but under 25 could also be entitled, if on reaching the age of 21, they are still being helped by their local authority with an agreed programme of education or training. To apply, students should contact their pathway planner at their Local Authority. Ask about the bursary and also whether there is additional support for care leavers from your Local Authority. This is not part of the student finance package provided by Student Finance England and it is disregarded when calculating entitlement to the student grants and loans.

Access to Learning Fund 
Some students, depending on their circumstances, may also be entitled to help from the Access to Learning Fund, which is administered by Financial Support at Leeds Met.

Student Finance
The support above is in addition to the grants and loans available from Student Finance England. 

Website:  www.direct.gov.uk/studentfinance  

If you have been looked after by a local authority it is important to let Student Finance England or your national funding provider know, so that you can be considered as an independent student. This will ensure that you are income assessed in your own right.

Leeds Met - Access and Widening Participation Team
Support for Care Leavers at Leeds Met is provided by the Access and Widening ParticipationTeam. Please contact them on 0113 8125907                               

National Scholarship Scheme

FAQs: Leeds Met's National Scholarship Scheme

Outstanding Achievement Scholarship

Website: Scholarships 

Leeds Met Carnegie Sports Scholarships

Website: Carnegie Scholarships

Leeds Met Bursary

2010 and 2011 starters who get the full Maintenance Grant could be eligible for the Leeds Met Bursary.

FAQs: Leeds Met Bursary 

At Leeds Met the following undergraduate courses attract NHS Bursary Funding:
BSc (Hons) Nursing
BSc (Hons) Dietetics
BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy
BSc (Hons) Clincal Language Sciences

 NHS students starting a course  from September 2012 can apply for:

£4,395 Bursary (£3,351 if living with parents)
£2,324 Maintenance Loan (£1,744 if living with parents)
£1,000 Grant
Tuition fees are paid by the NHS

The Bursary amount will depend on whether you live with your parents, your household income and how many weeks a year you study.

The Maintenance Loan amount will depend on whether you are living with your parents. Apply separately to Student Finance England. (NB The Maintenance Loan is available to NHS Bursary undergraduate students even if they already have a degree.)

The Grant of £1000 will be available to all eligible students.

There will also be help with placement travel costs, additional allowances for students with disabilities and dependants.

Link: NHS Student Bursaries for more information and how to apply.

A undergraduate bursary of £4,575 (outside London) is available each year to students studying BA(Hons) Social Work who started before 2013/14. The Bursary is not means-tested and will be paid in addition to all the full-time student support available from Student Finance England.

From September 2013 a bursary will be available for the second and third years onlyof the Social Work degree.

See our Postgraduate funding pages for details of the postgraduate Social Work Bursary

For more information about the bursary see the NHSBSA website:
Link: NHSBSA

The Access to Learning Fund provides additional financial help towards the essential costs associated with being a student.  Pick up an application form from a Student Hub desk.  

Website: Access to Learning Fund

It may be possible to get some extra help with living expenses or course costs from a Trust Fund or Charity.  Whether you can get help will depend on your individual circumstances and the aims of the Trust Fund or Charity.

You can carry out a search on the websites below to find details of organisations that may be able to help.

Family Action
Website: Family Action Trust Search

Turn2us
Website:  Turn2Us Grants Search

Student Loan Repayment for courses starting from September 2012

Full-time and part-time students who start their course after 1 September 2012 will not begin paying back their student loan until the April after they finish their course and only when they earn more than £21,000 year.

What you repay is based on your earnings, 9% of what you earn over £21,000 is deducted from your salary by Revenue & Customs. For example, if you earned £25,000 a year, then you would repay £30 per month from your salary. (This is currently subject to parliamentary approval.)

Website: Student Loan Repayment 2012

Student Loan Repayment for courses starting before September 2012

Website: Student Loan Repayment 2011