Loans and Grants

If you are an undergraduate student and your course started after 1st August 2016 then you can apply for the loan for living costs to help with such things as rent and food while you are studying.

Students who are eligible for help with their living costs can get the non means-tested part of the loan for living costs, because nearly half of the maximum amount is not means-tested against any household income.

• This loan is paid directly to students three times a year at the start of each term
• It is an up-front payment designed to last for the term
• You must have a personal UK bank or building society account in your own name
• You will need to have registered at university and received your student ID card before you can receive your first payment

The following table shows the maximum loan for living costs available for students who began their course from 1 August 2016 onwards, based on their assessed household income. These figures are for the academic year 2020/21, for students who are ordinarily resident in England, and who study at Salford.

If you have one or more children, or an adult who is financially dependent on you, then you may be able to apply for the following grants:

• Parents Learning Allowance
• Childcare Grant
• Adult Dependence Grant

If you have a specific disability or learning support needs then you may be eligible for some help through the Disabled Students Allowance.

EU and EEA students

If you are an EU national living in and studying in England, who is new to higher education, you can apply for the Tuition Fee Loan.

However, if you meet certain residency or working conditions, you may be able to apply as a ‘home’ student and apply for the loan for living costs mentioned above.

You can apply as a ‘home’ student if you are an EU or EEA national and one of the below applies:

• You have 5 years ‘ordinary residence’ in the UK (Irish nationals need only 3 years)
• You are an EEA Migrant Worker or are the ‘relevant family member’ of one.

Please be aware that these are the general categories. More conditions apply, and it is critical to understand the official definitions of ‘ordinary residence’, ‘worker’, and ‘relevant family member’ to know if you can qualify.

If you think that you fall into one of these categories, then the guidance that UKCISA provides in their Info and Advice section is recommended.

Qualifying Non-EEA or EU nationals

Non-EEA and non-EU nationals can sometimes qualify for student funding if their permission to stay in the UK is either unlimited (such as having Indefinite Leave to Remain), or where they fit into an immigration category where their leave to remain officially expires, but the category is accepted. For example, Refugees often have a 5-year expiry date on their BRP, nonetheless they are not barred from student funding because the Home Office has recognised them as being a refugee. Other qualifying conditions for support, such as previous study, will still apply.

Again, for an authoritative guide we recommend UKCISA.

Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professional courses

Postgraduate level degree healthcare students who are not already qualified practitioners in the subject you are applying for can often qualify for the student funding package that is usually applied for by undergraduate students. You can apply though gov.uk for the Tuition Fee Loan, the loan for living costs and the awards for dependants.

Students who are eligible for funding through the NHSBSA cannot apply for the Masters Loan.

Social Work Bursary

There is a Social Work Bursary for home students on the MA in Social Work. There are a limited amount of bursaries for home students studying on our MA in Social Work. For more information see the course description here and for the full guide you can visit the NHSBSA website.

Masters Loans

UK, EU, EEA or Swiss nationals who do not have a Masters degree already are able to borrow up to £11,222 for a Masters Loan if your course begins in 2020/21.

• This is not means-tested and is designed as a contribution towards course costs
• It is paid directly to you and is not designed to pay both the tuition fees and living costs
• Many students will need to find another source of funding before you commit to you course
• The payments are split into three terms and the loan itself is split across the years of the course

Loans are available for courses in all subject areas, except for those courses which are funded through the NHSBSA, NHS or Department of Health, which includes our healthcare and Social Work courses.

The course must be a full taught or research Masters qualification. PGCerts and PGDips, for example, are not funded.

Postgraduate Masters Loans

English Masters Loan

• Masters Loans will be available up to a maximum value of £11,222 for the whole course
• The loans are available for both taught and research masters courses
• Masters loans are available for all full-time and distance learning masters courses and for many, but not all, part-time courses (course intensity rules apply)
• The repayment rate is 6% of yearly income over £21,000pa
• The current interest rate charged on the loan can be found at the Student Loans Company website

Doctoral Loans

• English domiciled UK, EU, EEA or Swiss nationals can borrow up to £26,445 for a Doctoral Loan if your course begins in 2020/21
• This is not means-tested and is designed as a contribution towards course costs
• It is paid to you
• It is not designed to pay both the tuition fees and living costs, so many students will need to find another source of funding before you commit to your course
• The payments are split into three terms and the loan itself is split across the years of the course

As with the Masters Loan, you cannot combine this loan with NHS funded loans, nor with funding from a Research Council PhD Studentship.

Postgraduate Doctoral Loans

English Doctoral Loan

• Doctoral Loans are available up to a maximum value of £26,445 for the whole course
• Doctoral Loans are available for complete academic doctorates studied such as PhD and DPhils, and for professional doctorates such as a DBA or an EdB
• Doctoral Loans are available for courses lasting 3 to 8 years for taught or research-based courses that require attendance or are distance learning
• The repayment rate is 6% of yearly income over £21,000pa
• The current interest rate charged on the loan can be found at the Student Loans Company website

These details are not exhaustive. For English residents, most of the information can be found on the gov.uk website. You can apply for student finance online and, based on previous years, the application goes live in summer.

It is worth reading through the eligibility criteria on the funding websites thoroughly as other factors may apply.

If you have any questions that student finance cannot answer, please contact the Money Matters team at moneymatters@salford.ac.uk or +44 (0)161 295 0023.

New part-time students are able to apply for a tuition fee loan from Student Finance England to help pay for fees.

• The course intensity must be a minimum of 25% of the full-time course equivalent. Study intensity is the number of modules you study per year, as a percentage of the equivalent full-time course intensity
• Part-time students can also apply for a Maintenance Loan to help support with living costs
• The amount that can be borrowed will depend on a few different factors such as household income, study intensity, and where you live.

This information covers pre-NHS registration courses. The Allied Health Profession courses offered by Salford are: Radiography, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Podiatry, (Integrated Practice) Learning Disabilities Nursing and Social Work.

The main funding for these courses is from Student Finance England (for English residents) and is not different to what undergraduate students get studying other undergraduate degree subjects.

If you are from other parts of the UK and want to study these types of courses in England, please note that there are often restrictions imposed on your ability to get student funding. Please check with your funding body.

Social Work students can qualify for a supplementary Social Work Bursary from their second year of study at level 5 onwards. However, this bursary is subject to capping, so this is not guaranteed. Moe information can be found at the NHSBSA website.

If you have secured a place through Clearing, you will need to look at applying for your funding. You can do so here. The process is different for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but you can find links to each site here.

Student Finance England has produced a video for students going through the clearing process and needing to apply for finance.

If you have any questions or are concerned about your student funding assessment then please contact one of our finance advisers at moneymatters@salford.ac.uk or on +44 (0)161 295 0023 for help.

Allied Health Profession Courses, or ‘NHS courses’ as they are often called, are also ‘exempted courses’ when it comes to applying to funding. It is one of the very few cases where having a previous honours degree does not disqualify you from student funding. This means that students who are not qualified practitioners in that subject can have their previous study ignored when it comes to awarding student funding.

Prospective students are advised to explore the full resources on the NHSBSA website which includes application guidance and contact details for queries.

There are some extra entitlements, the first of which is the Learning Support Fund (LSF). This is administered by the NHSBSA. The LSF is made up of three parts:

• Travel and Dual Accommodation Expenses (for placement costs)
• Child Dependants Allowance (an extra £1,000 for qualifying students)
• Exceptional Support Fund (this is last-resort hardship funding for students who have already approached us about our Salford Support Fund)

Applications are made by registering for an LSF account online at the NHSBSA website. For further details, please consult the website. It also contains the LSF Account portal.