Student Finance - repayment of Graduate Medicine Loan

monlouhawk

I'm finding it very difficult to find the answer to this question - if I have a student finance loan for my undergraduate degree, and I get student finance for a "graduate medicine" degree, then what will my repayments be?

1) will it be 9% of my salary above £27,295, because both are Plan 2 student loans?
or 2) will it be 18% of my salary above £27,295, because I have TWO plan 2 student loans and I have to pay 9% tax for each of them?
or 3) will it be 9% of my salary above £27,295, plus another 6% of my salary above £21,000, because the undergraduate loan is a Plan 2 student loan, and the graduate medicine is a postgraduate loan?

I have tried calling Student Finance - the finance team tell me I must talk to the repayment team, the repayment team tell me I must talk to the finance team, they try to find out for me then drop me from the queue so I start all over again and go round in a loop.

I also looked on this forum, and at StudentRoom and could only find one post whose only reply is a "call SFE".

I have read so many articles about what finance is available for graduate medicine, but can't find anything about how the repayment works.

I hope someone here will know the answer! Thank you so much in advance.

kaMelo

You're right in that it's not that clear but after speaking to someone who knows way more than I do and reading on the student room website it would appear , contrary to what may seem obvious, that Graduate Entry Medicine is actually an undergraduate degree.
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/university/courses/medicine/graduate-entry-medicine-a-guide

With that in mind and thinking logically I would say any student loans obtained for GEM will just increase any outstanding plan 2 loan, from which 9% will be paid back on any earnings over the earnings threshold. So number 1 in your list.
Important to bear in mind also that the tuition fee is not fully funded by student finance, a portion is self funded in year one and a mix of self funding/NHS bursary/tuition fee loan in further years. 


Oh and good luck, with such strict limits on numbers (Barts has around 1500 applications for 39 places)  it looks a pretty tough way to get into medicine. 

monlouhawk

Thanks so much. Confession time - this is about my daughter not me but thought it was easier just to write the post in the first person.  And - proud moment - she did get an offer both at Barts and Warwick.  I was hoping logically it was number 1 as well, that it would increase the outstanding plan 2 loan, but one person on the SFE line yesterday was saying it would be two separate loans.... I think I need to have another go at ringing them. It is essential that I know whether she'll be paying 9% or 18% tax!  (And yes I did know about the self-funded and NHS bits). Thanks again for posting a reply.

mhz

monlouhawk said:

I'm finding it very difficult to find the answer to this question - if I have a student finance loan for my undergraduate degree, and I get student finance for a "graduate medicine" degree, then what will my repayments be?

1) will it be 9% of my salary above £27,295, because both are Plan 2 student loans?
or 2) will it be 18% of my salary above £27,295, because I have TWO plan 2 student loans and I have to pay 9% tax for each of them?
or 3) will it be 9% of my salary above £27,295, plus another 6% of my salary above £21,000, because the undergraduate loan is a Plan 2 student loan, and the graduate medicine is a postgraduate loan?

I have tried calling Student Finance - the finance team tell me I must talk to the repayment team, the repayment team tell me I must talk to the finance team, they try to find out for me then drop me from the queue so I start all over again and go round in a loop.

I also looked on this forum, and at StudentRoom and could only find one post whose only reply is a "call SFE".

I have read so many articles about what finance is available for graduate medicine, but can't find anything about how the repayment works.

I hope someone here will know the answer! Thank you so much in advance.

Hi! I have been thinking about this recently too, did you ever find out? Thanks!

Ed-1

Nobody pays more than 9% over the lowest repayment threshold for any undergraduate loan plans they have.

So if all are plan 2 loans, then it's 9% over £27,295. The loan for the second course starts its 30 years from the April after leaving that course. So separate write off dates but combined repayments.

If however the first is a plan 2 loan and the second a plan 5 loan as the course starts from AY23/24 onwards, then the repayment becomes 9% over £25,000 from the April after leaving the second course (as long as this is on or after April 2026). The repayment is split with 9% between £25,000 and £27,295 going to plan 5 and 9% over £27,295 going to plan 2.

silvercar

Welcome to the forum. As you say the forum is vast and it can be difficult to find your way around. There is a separate board about students that may be worth a read, though I can't recall your particular question.

I have asked the forum team to move your thread over to the student board that can be found here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/student-money-saving

MSE_ForumTeam5

Thread moved to Student board