Thinking about postgraduate study? Here’s our quick guide to postgraduate funding

If you are in the final year of your undergraduate course the end is nearly in sight. Some of you may be looking forward to taking a well earned break whilst others may be thinking of that full time wage packet.

Still some of you may be toying with the idea of deepening your academic learning with Postgraduate studies and funding wise there has never been a better time to pursue this.

Master’s Loan

In 2016 the Government introduced a Postgraduate Loan for Masters courses.

This loan can be used to help pay for fees and/or living costs and for courses starting in 2020/21 the loan is up to £11,222 in total for a full time course.

It is a non-means tested loan, and thus not dependent on household income, which is different to how the full undergraduate Maintenance Loan is calculated.

Eligible students will:

• be under 60 on the 1st Sept 2020
• be a UK or EU national or have ‘settled status’ and be normally living in England
• be on a full or part time course which leads to a full taught or research-based postgraduate master’s degree.

The total loan payment is spread across all years of the course and is paid directly to you in three instalments each academic year, so if you are doing a part time Masters course over 2 years, you will receive £5611 each academic year paid in instalments of £1870.33 each term.

It will then be up to you on how you distribute this loan and meet your costs.

You can apply online using your existing Customer Reference Number when applications open later in the year. If you’re considering a research-based course, you’ll need to input the correct course title onto the application.

Repayments will be collected from your salary the April after you end you course and only once you are earning over £21,000. This the same as the Maintenance Loan for undergraduates. If you’ve also had an undergraduate loan from Student Finance England, you’ll repay both loans at the same time.

Doctoral Loans

These are available for postgraduate doctoral courses, such as a PhD.

You can receive up to £26,445 and they follow the same rules on eligibility, distribution of payments and repayment criteria as outlined for the Masters Loan.

If you are receiving DWP Benefits, contact Student Advice to find out how loans impact on your Benefit entitlement.

Vice-Chancellor’s alumni scholarships

For those of you who opt to stay at Brighton to continue your postgraduate studies there is the added benefit of receiving the VC alumni scholarship, which is worth £3,000 and is available to Brighton graduates who achieved a first class or 2:1 and progress immediately from their undergraduate course to masters level with us.

The scholarship is open to both full and part-time students and acts as a reduction in tuition fees. You need to have applied for and been accepted on to a course by September/October 2020 and the award should be applied to your fees automatically.

Not eligible for government loans?

Some of you may find that you are not eligible for the government loans or that there remains a funding gap between the amount of loan received and your expenses.

One avenue for additional funding is applying to charities or trust funds that might be willing to support your study. The Alternative Guide to Postgraduate Funding would be a good starting point to explore this option and FindAMasters provides useful tips and tricks to preparing a successful application for charitable funding and educational grants.

Another route are educational loans through private loan companies. They will allow you to borrow money based on your graduate earning potential not just your current financial situation. Please read the terms and conditions for this type of borrowing very carefully as there are fees attached to receiving the loan and the repayment terms are a lot steeper than the traditional Government loans. However, if you feel you can meet the terms outlined, this might prove a useful source of income to temporarily support yourself.

Some postgraduate courses have their own bespoke funding streams, such as PGCE, Social Work and some aspects of Health Science

Happy researching

Student Advice Service