New student finance
Monday 1 September 2008
If you’re starting university or college soon you might be concerned about the cost of your education. n2k has hints and links to help you be totally informed.
What help is available?
There are a lot of factors to consider before you work out what help is available for you. The basic help is as follows:
- Student Loan for Tuition Fees – the cost for tuition fees can be as much as £3,145 a year. Don't worry though as you can get a student loan which can be repaid after you finish your studies and are in the workplace.
- Student Loan for Maintenance – these are loans to help you with your living costs.
- Maintenance Grants - new students may be eligible to receive a non-repayable maintenance mrant of up to £2,835 per year. It’s estimated that almost half of full time students can get a full or partial grant so it is well worth investigating.
- Busaries and scholarships – some unis and colleges also offer bursaries and scholarships.
Plan ahead
Try to plan ahead. Start making notes of how much you are spending on socialising and so on. Find out if you can you save money on your mobile phone bill or other utilities by browsing websites which compare prices of mobile phone and utilities providers as well as digital TV providers and current accounts.
If you do have any spare cash try to start saving it. Having a nest egg could be a life saver if something goes wrong or even if you just want to make yourself more comfortable.
As well as finding out what support’s available, make sure you sign up for e-mail alerts and newsletters from your favourite shops and retailers as they often send you special offers and details of shopping events to save money.
Banks & loans
As a student you will be able to get loans from the Student Loans Compnay but many banks will also offer loans and overdrafts. A loan from the SLC is very different and preferable to a personal bank loan in that the interest rate is linked to the rate of inflation. This means you are technically not paying any ‘real’ interest and therefore a much better option than a bank loan that will have much higher commercial interest rates. Find out more about interest rates.
Having credit cards and getting loans might seem like an easy option but don’t get caught in the “buy-now-pay-later” trap because credit cards and loans do eventually mount up, and remember you still have to pay them back at some point! Try not get into any debt that you don’t have to.
Help for you
These pages help you work out how much help you can get - and the good news is, there's probably more help than you think - there's a new financial package in place to help full-time students (see who information this applies to) and recent changes mean even more help is now available.
This provides financial support to help with tuition fees and living costs. Some help (such as grants and bursaries) you don't have to pay back, other help (like Student Loans) doesn't have to be paid back until you've left your course and started work - allowing you to study first and pay back when you're earning.
For more detailed information check out the Directgov pages. Also keep checking back on the n2k pages over the next few weeks for further information you need2know.
