Tuition fee loans, maintenance loans, bursaries and Plan 5 repayments explained in plain English, with differences for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Find out what you'll really repay.
Tuition Fee Loan → paid to your uni. Maintenance Loan → paid to you, for rent, food and life.
One instalment = a whole term. Divide it by the weeks until the next one lands.
Household income (usually parents' or a partner's) changes how much Maintenance Loan you get. £25,000 or under gets the maximum.
Free money exists! Bursaries, scholarships, grants and hardship funds usually don't need paying back. In England, check bursaries from your uni.
Plan 5 (England, courses from August 2023): pay 9% of income above £25,000. Nothing below it.
Changing course, pausing or leaving? Tell your uni and Student Finance quickly, and get advice before you decide.
Student loans aren't on your credit file. Repayments depend on income, and leftover balance is written off at the end of the term.
Your plan sets your threshold and write-off. It depends on where you're from and when your course started. Starting uni from England now? That's Plan 5 (£25,000 threshold).
Interest grows the balance, but you only ever repay 9% over threshold. Whether overpaying helps depends on whether you'd clear it anyway.
Postgrad Loan: 6% above £21,000, stacked on top of 9% above your undergrad threshold.
Your home nation decides your funding body, fees support and loan plan. Yours: Student Finance England, Plan 5.
England: the Childcare Grant pays up to 85% of registered childcare costs for full-time undergraduates (max £199.62 a week for one child, £342.24 for two or more). It isn't a loan.
England: Parents' Learning Allowance (up to £2,024 a year) for students with children, and Adult Dependants' Grant (up to £3,545 a year) if an adult depends on you. Both are income-assessed and not repaid.
England: the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund helps with costs like travel, food and equipment. Up to £1,200 a year for some students (for example in care or a care leaver); your college decides the discretionary bursary. Not repaid.
Income-contingent, written off eventually, not on your credit file — and SFE and the Student Loans Company never ask for your bank login by email.
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GameStudent Finance: quick answers
In England (2026/27), the maximum full-time Tuition Fee Loan per year is…?
£9,790 a year. It goes straight to your uni — you only start repaying once you're earning over your plan's threshold.
Who decides how much living-cost support you can get in England?
Student Finance England, based on household income and where you live/study. Yes. Living at home, away outside London or in London all change the amount, and so does household income.
Student Finance: in-depth guides
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