Your student finance questions, answered.

Student Finance Loans

UEA Scholarships & Bursaries

Student Finance Loans

The student loan offered by Student Finance England is made up of 2 parts the tuition fee loan and the maintenance loan.

Part 1 - If you are eligible, you are entitled to the full tuition fee loan to cover your tuition fees up to £9,250 per year, regardless of household income.

Part 2 - Living cost support (maintenance loan) is dependent on how high your household income is, and where you study. If you want to calculate your entitlement, please visit the Student Finance calculator.

You are funded for the length of your initial degree, plus one year. As an example, if you initially choose to do a 3-year course, but then change to a four-year course, that is fine as you can use the extra year. If you had to then resit a year that would be unfunded as you have already used your extra year. You can only receive the student loan if you do not already have a degree (there are exceptions to this for some health courses). 

Student finance applications are completed online or by post. Make sure you keep those login details safe!

You apply for a student loan through the GOV.UK site (typically via the Student Finance England portal) the year that you are going to university. e.g. you are starting university in September 2024, you would apply between February and May 2024.

The May deadline date is to ensure you receive your student loan at the start of your course, you can still apply after May, but your first loan payment may be delayed.

Home students spending the year abroad or a year in Industry on the £9,250 fee rate will be charged a reduced tuition fee of 15%, for 2023 or 2024 entry this stands at £1,385. The tuition fee loan from student finance can cover this.

The Maintenance loan is paid directly into your bank account on the first day of each semester. You can update your bank account details online with Student Finance England at any point after you have been accepted.

The Tuition fee loan is paid in instalments directly to the University from student finance, with 25% at the start of both the Autumn and Spring semester, then the remaining 50% in the Summer semester.

No, but think carefully before paying off a student loan. Unless you have no other debts (and even then sometimes if you do) it’s usually best to keep the money you would have used to pay off your student loan and use it for something else, more information is available on the Money Saving Expert website.

It starts as soon as you receive your first instalment of your Living Cost loan, or your first tuition fee payment reaches the University. The interest rate is set by Student Finance England each year. There is a further explanation of interest rates on the GOV.UK webpage.

Repayments are taken from the April after you graduate, only once you are earning a set amount determined by Student Finance England. For 2023 entry onward (Plan 5) this threshold is set at £25,000. You pay back 9% of anything you earn above the threshold. To review current thresholds see the GOV.UK webpage.

At the same time. So it is not a tax benefit but the repayment amount is based on Gross income.

If your salary falls below the threshold your repayments will pause. If you take a career break, go on maternity leave or are unemployed your repayments will be suspended until you are earning over the threshold. However, interest on the loan will continue to be applied even if your repayments are suspended.

You will need to let student finance know and then your repayments will be the same as you would pay in the UK. So when you're abroad you'll pay 9% of whatever you earn over the equivalent repayment threshold for that country but converted into the equivalent amount of money for the country you're living in.

Gross. (Pre-tax household income from the last full financial tax year – unless there has been a 15%+ fluctuation)

By informing Student Finance England students can be reassessed for their support.

You can contact Student Finance England on 0300 100 0607

Text relay (if you cannot hear or speak on the phone): 18001 then 0300 100 0607

Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm, Saturday and Sunday – 9am to 4pm

UEA Scholarships & Bursaries

A scholarship usually rewards a student for an academic, musical or sporting achievement. They can be available as extra financial help or as support, e.g our sports scholars may benefit from gym membership and nutritional advice as well as financial support.

Bursaries are offered to support students based on household income or social factors.

UEA bursaries are automatic and there is no need to apply (consent to SFE sharing your income assessment with partner universities and you can be assessed by both at once). Our bursary criteria can be found in Bursaries.

Scholarships usually need you to apply via a short application form, deadlines vary depending on scholarship. Take a look at our Scholarship Finder for full information.

Both. Though there are limits on which scholarships may be combined with each other. Bursaries are separate to this.