Money Matters for Part-time students

No upfront costs

From 2012, students who want to undertake a part-time higher education course will have access to a loan for tuition fees.

• You don’t have to pay for your course yourself upfront if you are studying for a degree for the first time.
• You can get a loan to cover the cost of your tuition, which you only start to pay back when you are earning over £21,000 a year.
• As a part-time student you will only be eligible for assistance with tuition fees. There will be not be any maintenance support for part-timers.

From 2012 part-time students will benefit from new loans for tuition fees that should cover the full cost of their course. The loans will replace the means-tested fee grant and study grant. The loans will not be means-tested.

The amount of the loans will depend on the proportion of a full-time course which is studied each year. The lower limit is 25 per cent and the upper limit is 75 per cent.

Part-time students will become liable to repay their loan from the April after the third anniversary of the start date of their course, even if they continue to study. But no repayments will be made unless they are earning more than £21,000.

If the part-time course lasts less than three years, then graduates will become liable to repay from the April after they leave higher education, and will begin to repay once earning more than £21,000. Repayments will be due at 9 per cent of income over this amount. If earnings are less than this amount, there will be no repayments and interest will accrue at the Retail Price Index (RPI).

Interest will be charged at the RPI + 3 per cent while studying and up to the April they become liable to repay. After that date, interest will depend on income, varying from RPI for earnings up to £21,000, and gradually increasing from RPI at £21,000 up to a maximum of RPI + 3 per cent for those earning £41,000 and over.

Students transferring to a part-time course in 2012/13 from a part-time course which started before September 2012, or those starting part-time ‘top-up’ courses on or after 1 September 2012, immediately after completing certain lower level part-time courses, will not be subject to any of these changes - they will remain on their existing student finance arrangements. For administrative reasons, loans will not be collected through the tax system until after April 2016.

Further information
For further information on applying to University Centre at Wakefield College, call Student Finance on 01924 789517