Any Financial help available for a Masters

anonymous-poster_2

Hello all,

I think I'd quite like to go back to uni to complete a masters in the same subject I did my degree in a couple of years ago. I'm currently working (as is my wife), and we each bring home approx £12,000 each after tax.

Whilst I realise if I did go back , we'd have to tighten our belts, put summer holidays on hold and stop saving / making mortgage overpayments, I'm just wondering if there's any help available whether means tested or not (like the student loans you can get when studying for undergraduate degrees).

Whilst I realise there are some scholarship type places you can get towards fees from the university itself, I'd rather treat that as a bonus if I could actually get one, rather than relying on it to allow me to study towards my masters.

Would there be any financial help available, as we're homeowners who'd be going down to an income between them of £12000 a year after tax?

Anything at all?

dmg24

Apart from the scholarships and bursaries that you are already aware of, no!

Sorry, didn't know how else to phrase it. x

Gingernutmeg

You could try for a research council scholarship, although this depends on your subject. Also, the scholarships available for an MA are generally only for 'research' based MAs - they seem to be there to encourage able candidates to work towards a PhD. Many are also only available as part of a 3+1 scheme too, in that you take an MA and then go straight on to a PhD. They are incredibly competitive, but it might be something to think about if you've got a good result from your first degree and you can get good references. I *think* though that you may have missed most of the deadlines for appication submissions if you wanted to start this September, although don't quote me on this.

Apart from that there is absolutely no help for an MA, beyond the awards/scholarships available from individual universitites. There are no loans (although maybe you could be eligable for a Career Development Loan, if the MA is fairly vocational?). However, MA courses, although they involve intensive study, often don't have that many timetabled lessons (although obviously this depends on the subject). It is possible to work and study, although it isn't easy. It's also possible to take MAs part-time, and so work enough to support yourself while you're studying.

jimbob_too

I was able to obtain a Career Development Loan for my MSc course, even though the course was in Environmental Science, which some might say is not particularly vocational. I think so long as you can justify how it might be vocational in the application for your loan (ask the course director for some tips on this) then you should be OK with the vocational criteria. You apply for the loan through one of three banks, though not every application is successful. Mine was, but I have never had any luck applying for other types of financial products such as credit cards. Confusing, that...

Regarding the career development loan itself, I think there is a big article about them elsewhere on this site. In short, the government pays the interest on the loan whilst you are studying. You take over the interest payments when you have finished studying. Personally, the CDL was a great help for me during my MSc course and I probably would have been unable to complete the course without it (since there isn't much time for part time paid work whilst studying!)

Oldernotwiser

Why not look at studying part time and funding the course that way. I really think that you need to be more strongly motivated than "I'd quite like to go back to uni" to make the financial and personal sacrifices needed for full time, unfunded, study at Master's level.
What subject area are you looking at and with what career aim in mind?

Glasgow_Paul

I had to take a professional studies loan from Barclays, but they have stopped providing this product now.