Are there any postgraduate study loans to cover living expenses?

adamtengku

Hi all, I'm trying to help a friend get himself into further studies. He's a mature student and just finishing his undergrad and wants to carry on to pursue a Masters or possibly even a PhD (as recommended by his tutor). He's worked really hard, made great progress and gotten superb grades. The only problem now seems to be funding.

It seems the only equivalent for a student loan is the Masters Loan, but this only provides up to £11,222 in total for everything. As it stands the course fees are actually a bit higher than this, so this means there is no support like a maintenance loan that could help cover living/eating/rent costs at all. I've been helping him look around but it seems like the only options are grants, scholarships, or charities, which aren't really a guarantee at this point! Alternatively, there are personal loans, but those aren't a great option either as they'd start building interest straight away and require payments immediately.

Does anyone know of anything that could help support his living costs for this at all?  The Professional and Career Development Loans would have been ideal if it wasn't discontinued! I'd be very grateful for any help on this, it would be a real shame if he wasn't able to carry on with these studies right now!

Clive_Woody

If he has the grades to do a PhD then I would definitely recommend this over a masters. Many PhDs are sponsored (or at least they were when I did mine) and include a stipend to cover living costs. It might be worth having a chat with his tutor to get some further insight.

Socajam

How about doing his Masters part-time and getting a job part-time.
With all the cutbacks we can expect , this is going to be a difficult time obtaining grants , scholarships or even help from charities.
But there is no harm is starting to send out letters and see what his chances are.

adamtengku

Clive_Woody said:

If he has the grades to do a PhD then I would definitely recommend this over a masters. Many PhDs are sponsored (or at least they were when I did mine) and include a stipend to cover living costs. It might be worth having a chat with his tutor to get some further insight.

Yeah there does seem to be many more options on the PhD-side, he found this site Find A PhD that lists a bunch of them with decent filtering options. So it would be great to find one here that is sponsored sufficiently. Feel we'll need to look into this side more. Thank you!

adamtengku

Socajam said:

How about doing his Masters part-time and getting a job part-time.
With all the cutbacks we can expect , this is going to be a difficult time obtaining grants , scholarships or even help from charities.
But there is no harm is starting to send out letters and see what his chances are.

I know that he isn't super keen on doing it part-time at the moment just because of the amount of time it will take overall, but maybe this is a more realistic option because I've seen the way he studies (intense!) and working and full time Masters is definitely a no-go. We'll probably need to shortlist some of those options and contact them as you say, hopefully something comes through. Thank you for your input!

Dr_Crypto

I thought most PhDs came with a stipend. There are also opportunities for some work such as tutoring or lecturing undergrads. 

Voyager2002

The vast majority of Masters students fund themselves, partly by studying part-time while working, partly by working first and saving. Working while doing a Masters full-time is generally not realistic (the Masters course that I once ran required study for 50 hours per week for some of the year).

For some subjects (Sciences) it is usual for well-qualified graduates to begin a PhD straight after a BSc, and this is usually funded. In the arts and social sciences it is generally essential to get a Masters before beginning a PhD. Sometimes it is possible to find "three plus one" funding: funding for a three-year PhD that comes with funding for doing an appropriate Masters first.

Clive_Woody

Dr_Crypto said:

I thought most PhDs came with a stipend. There are also opportunities for some work such as tutoring or lecturing undergrads. 

They certainly used to. My PhD sponsor covered tuition, lab costs, a stipend for living costs and money for conference attendance. I was also able to do some teaching of undergraduates.....which helped pay for a skiing holiday.

Fantastic 3 years which set me up for my career. You need to be prepared to work long hours, read a hell of a lot and dedicate the time at the end to write up your thesis, but it's certainly a qualification worth having.