Postgraduate Loan predicament (Masters Course)

AndrewOldnall

Okay so,
Over the past god knows how many years there has been a loan in place for postgraduate study going onto a masters course, recently this has been offered by The Coop Bank, a loan of £10,600~ for the year with fixed interest rates to pay for living costs as a masters student. With a repayment plan of pay nothing until the course is completed/finished and start repayments one month after said completion. I have been in contact with CDL Team (Careers Development Loan) at the Coop Bank and they have stated that they no longer offer this loan to students and have not been given any alternative company which offer a like for like type of loan, is there any other types of career development loans out there? I'm assuming this is a new topic as it is only recently which the CDL team have closed down this loan.
Many thanks in advance for the advice!

[Deleted User]

Have a read of this

https://www.reed.co.uk/career-advice/how-to-apply-for-a-career-development-loan/

AndrewOldnall

Thank you for the fast reply!
I'm currently on a webchat with an advisor from that website you linked and they have said that the Coop Bank is the only bank that offers this loan, again they are closing it so i'm guessing they have about as much idea about this as i do unfortunately!

AndrewOldnall

Just got off the chat with the advisor and he said that the government have completely shut down this careers development loan, the final date to apply is 25th January and that no other banks offer any type of loan that covers living costs for masters students.

Pixie5740

Are you not able to apply for a masters loan from Student Finance England or whichever Student Finance body covers your area of the UK?

https://www.gov.uk/masters-loan/apply

AndrewOldnall

Yes, this loan pays for the course itself. but additional funding is required often, exactly how a bachelors degree is set up

Pixie5740

This scheme is replacing the Career Development Loan scheme. You've never been able to have both. The CDL scheme allowed you to borrow between £300 and £10,000. The new masters loan allows you to borrow up to £10,609. If £10,609 won't be enough you'll need to find funding from elsewhere and/or work along side study.

CakeCrusader

I have a postgraduate loan from Student Finance England. I have to work too as it doesn't cover all of the fees and any maintenance. Universities do offer bursaries, but they are few and far between and they are usually around 10% off the fees. You're better off applying at the same Uni where you studied for your degree as they often offer a discount. Other than this, your options are to work/work now and save up.

zagubov

Can the masters be taken part-time?
Is there a distance learning version (e.g. via the OU or other universities)?

Unfortunately we're losing the advantage of the three-year Bachelor's degree in this country because we've adopted the US system of mass Bachelor's degree recruitment without taking on the "working your way through college" ethos of students taking eight years to complete a degree part-time while working in non-professional jobs.

We're also starting to see higher degrees like masters becoming a new norm. In the US that's because their honours degrees are like our ordinary pass degrees and they need a masters to match our honours degree level of academic achievement.
Here it's because people often do a degree in a non-career-related subject and realise too late they should have done something to increase their job prospects and they have to find a masters degree to do that.

We very much need a joined-up education policy, and not one stolen from America.

HampshireH

Distance learning option is definitely worth considering if your course is available.

I did my MSc distance learning and worked full time. It was a fractiono of the cost (4k) and I worked throughout