Student MoneySaving: Funding, Borrowing & Living as a student Article Discussion Area

Oldernotwiser

Also worth emphasising that it is the student who applies and not the parent; the parent just provides financial information to back up the claim.

brian57

My daughter has had no communication of any type since first applying. Why on earth would she expect a payment schedule? Why on earth would she know such a thing even existed - the amounts are well reported in the press.
I have looked through the original application and supporting documentation. There is nothing that states that she has to apply each year.

brian57

All the more reason for SFE to remind the student to reapply e.g. by email.

Note the need to reapply each year is not evident in the "all you need to know" on this site.

To repeat, we thought we were applying for a course, not on a per year basis. If she drops out we need to pay the loan back and I am obliged to report any change in my financial circumstances.

gelwood99

I am trying to find out whether I could qualify for loans/grants if I wanted to study for an e-learning degree. I am currently employed as an administrator, am 49 years ols, and to improve my career prospects would love to take an on-line degree in Business Administration. I have found a course, but it would cost around £3,500 with the University of London. I work full time, but cannot afford this kind of expense in one go. Help!

Oldernotwiser

brian57 wrote: »

If she drops out we need to pay the loan back and I am obliged to report any change in my financial circumstances.

No you don't. The loan is in your daughter's name and any repayments are based on her financial situation and are her responsibility.

Oldernotwiser

gelwood99 wrote: »

I am trying to find out whether I could qualify for loans/grants if I wanted to study for an e-learning degree. I am currently employed as an administrator, am 49 years ols, and to improve my career prospects would love to take an on-line degree in Business Administration. I have found a course, but it would cost around £3,500 with the University of London. I work full time, but cannot afford this kind of expense in one go. Help!

Funding for part time degrees is normally available for those on a low income who aren't already graduates, although I can't find any mention of this on the website. This may be because so many international students study this way that the information isn't relevant to them, so I'd give the University(External degrees office) a ring to ask them.

If you find that this funding isn't available then you might want to consider looking at similar degrees with the OU, where funding certainly is available and you can spread the cost over the year if your household income is above the threshold.

Edit: Rereading your post, I see that it's paying the whole thing at once that might be the problem. In that case, you might find this reassuring as it explains about spreading your course fees across the years of study.

http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/study_ep/costs/ug_fees.shtml

saggingvenus

Hello I wonder if anyone could help me please. Our daughter is currently in her final A level year and plans to go to college/university next year to study for a Foundation Degree. I am a little confused as to whether she will be entitled to a grant. Her boyfriend started uni this year and has taken a student loan which he was told entitled him to a grant for his fees but I am not sure he understood this correctly (plus he's of a single parent family so income would be vastly different). Surely if you are entitled to a maintenance grant then that should not be subject to you having to take a student loan? If she isn't entitled to a grant then I assume we will be responsible for paying her fees. She has not been entitled to any EMA throughout her A levels as we earnt over the limit in 07/08 for her 08/09 studies and the EMA guys advised that for 09/10 the assessment for EMA is based on our earnings for the previous year so even though both mine and my partner's hours were reduced on 1 November last year, they still go by 08/09 P60 earnings which reflected full time earning for each of us.

I really just need to know whether she is likely to get any help with tuition fees that will not have to be repaid. I appreciate if she takes a loan then she will have to repay that once earning over £15K but if what her boyfriend said is true, then surely it would be cheaper in the long run if she took a loan to enable her fees to be paid by maintenance grant. We could then help with repaying the loan as we will not have to fork out for the tuition fees.

We really wanted her to be able to get an education with as little debt as possible to give her the best start and for this reason, with our encouragement, she has chosen a college nearby so she can remain living at home while studying. Ironically, I earn little enough for my own pre-1999 student loans to be deferred each year and yet from what little understanding I do have, we are going to have to pay for our daughter's education. I am also assuming that although my partner is not my daughter's biological father (who has never contributed towards her upbringing since I was pregnant) his income is still taken into account?

Its all so confusing - we need to do a course on how you go about doing a course iyswim!

TIA.
Sags

Oldernotwiser

Funding for a Foundation Degree is exactly the same as for an academic degree. All students are able to take out a loan for the fees and a maintenance loan, only part of which is assessed on parental income. Students from low income households are also eligible for a maintenance grant. You can find all the information on https://www.direct.gov.uk.

Many students will never pay off all their student finance so the recommendation is to take out all the loans possible. Unless money is very tight, choosing a course on the possibility is likely to be an unwise decision.

I'm sorry but I'm not sure that I've understood your second paragraph (it's probably me!) can you try and explain what you mean exactly.

saggingvenus

Thanks so much for your prompt reply. I have been discouraging dd from any student loan just to avoid her getting into debt but will probably now change that advice!
Sorry about the second paragraph - I am sure it was me not being clear (I don't understand it to start with so trying to explain was an even bigger challenge!). What dd's bf said was that if he took a student loan he will get his fees paid by maintenance grant but if he didn't take a student loan he wouldn't get a maintenance grant. I am sure he has misunderstood as I thought if you are entitled to a maintenance grant, that would be payable regardless of whether you also took a student loan? My reasoning if he was right was that dd may as well take a student loan if she would then qualify for maintenance grant as she would only have to repay the student loan which we could help with if we weren't paying any tuition fees.

I doubt i've been any clearer! but thanks so much your advice is much appreciated.

Sags

Oldernotwiser

saggingvenus wrote: »

Thanks so much for your prompt reply. I have been discouraging dd from any student loan just to avoid her getting into debt but will probably now change that advice!
Sorry about the second paragraph - I am sure it was me not being clear (I don't understand it to start with so trying to explain was an even bigger challenge!). What dd's bf said was that if he took a student loan he will get his fees paid by maintenance grant but if he didn't take a student loan he wouldn't get a maintenance grant. I am sure he has misunderstood as I thought if you are entitled to a maintenance grant, that would be payable regardless of whether you also took a student loan? My reasoning if he was right was that dd may as well take a student loan if she would then qualify for maintenance grant as she would only have to repay the student loan which we could help with if we weren't paying any tuition fees.

I doubt i've been any clearer! but thanks so much your advice is much appreciated.

Sags

It's worth reading the general advice on here re student loans - many people take them and put them in high interest accounts if they really don't need the money! As I'm sure you know, they're the cheapest form of borrowing that exists.

What I think the boyfriend may have meant (who knows with teenagers!) is that you can use the maintenance grant to pay the fees rather than taking out the fee loan, always supposing that you don't need both to live on!
The best place to start is http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/UniversityAndHigherEducation/StudentFinance/Applyingforthefirsttime/DG_171523 but do come back with more questions if you need to.