Tuition Fee Loans for full-time students

UK nationals

You’ll be eligible for student finance if all of the following apply:

• you normally live and work in England
• you’ve been living in the UK, the Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man for three years before starting your course

And you’re:

• a UK national or Irish Citizen, or
• settled under the EU Settlement Scheme, or
• granted indefinite leave to remain for other reasons

Lived outside the UK, EU, or EEA?

You can also apply if you’ve been living in the UK, the EEA, Gibraltar or Switzerland for the past 3 years and are:

• the child of a Swiss national and you have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme 
• an EEA or Swiss worker, or the family member of an EEA or Swiss Worker, and you have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme or you are an Irish Citizen
• a family member of a UK National - both you and your family member must have lived in the UK, EEA, Gibraltar or Switzerland for the past 3 years
• the child of a Turkish worker and you and your Turkish worker parent were in the UK by 31 December 2020, with your parent being granted extended leave to remain beyond that date

If you’ve lived outside the UK, EU, or EEA on a temporary basis, you must have returned to the UK by the start of your course to be eligible for student finance.

You can apply if you have one of the following Home Office statuses:

• Humanitarian protection or the family member of someone with this status
• Stateless status or the family member of someone with this status
• Refugee status or the family member of someone with this status
• Calais leave or the dependent child of someone with Calais leave
• Classed as ‘leave to remain’ under the section 67 of the Immigration act or the dependent child of someone with this status
• You, your parent or step-parent have been granted indefinite leave to enter or remain in the UK as a victim of domestic violence or abuse 
• You, your parent or step-parent have been granted indefinite leave to remain as a person who has been a bereaved partner 
• You or your family member have been granted leave to enter or remain under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) or the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS)
• You or your family member have been granted leave to enter or remain in the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme, the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme or the Ukraine Extension Scheme

You could also be eligible if you have limited Leave to Remain (including Discretionary Leave to Remain) and have lived in the UK for three years before the first day of your course. Further requirements depend on what age you are:

• If you’re under 18 on the first day of your course, you must have lived in the UK for at least seven years
• If you’re 18 or over on the first day of your course, you must have lived in the UK for at least half your life or at least 20 years, whichever is less

You must also live in England on the first day of your course.

Tuition fee only funding

Most EU, other EEA and Swiss nationals starting courses on or after 1 August 2021 will not be eligible for support from Student Finance England.

Students whose courses start before 1 August 2021 will continue to get student finance for the rest of their course. Find out more on GOV.UK.

You may be eligible for tuition fee only support if you've been living in the UK, the EEA, Switzerland or overseas territories for the past 3 years and you’re:

• an EU national or a family member of an EU national or a family member of a person of Northern Ireland and you have pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement scheme
• an EU national or a family member of an EU national who has resident status in Gibraltar
• an EEA or Swiss worker or a family member of an EEA or Swiss worker; or
• a person of Chagossian descent and have British citizenship
• a child of a Swiss national or the child of a Turkish worker and you do not qualify for full support

UK nationals and their family members who have resident status in Gibraltar and lived in the UK, Gibraltar, the EEA or Switzerland for the past three years can also apply for tuition fee funding.

You may also be able to get tuition fee funding if you are a:

• family member of a UK national
• family member of a person with settled status in the UK
• family member of a person of Northern Ireland
• family member of an Irish Citizen

You must have been living in the UK and Islands for the past 3 years and your family member is resident in the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the course.

You can also apply if you are a UK national, an Irish Citizen or you have settled status in the UK and you have been living in any of the following for the past 3 years:

• the UK, Islands and/or the specified British Overseas Territories
• the UK Islands and/or Ireland

You can also apply if you have Irish Citizenship and have been living in any of the following for the past 3 years: 

• the UK, the EEA, Switzerland or the Overseas Territories, and were resident in the UK on or before 31 December 2020
• the UK, the EEA, Switzerland or Gibraltar, and were resident in the EEA or Switzerland on or before 31 December 2020

Courses starting before 1 September 2012

If you started your course before 1 September 2012, you can get a Tuition Fee Loan of up to £3,465.

If you are an EU national, or a relative of one, you’ll be eligible for student finance if all of the following apply:

• you’ve been living in the UK for at least 5 years before the first day of the first academic year of your course
• you’re living in England on the first day of the first academic year of your course

You’ll need to tell us all the addresses you’ve lived at in the last five years, and send us original evidence to prove this. 

• Examples of evidence you can send include:
  • Council Tax bills
  • utility bills
  • P60s
  • wage slips
  • letters from HMRC
  • Child Tax Credits letters
  • Child Benefit letters
  • tax returns
  • tax calculations
  • bank statements

If you were under 18 at the start of the five year period before your course starts, we can also accept:

• signed/stamped letters on headed paper from your school or college confirming dates of attendance (it must confirm the exact dates)
• a Child Benefit or Child Tax Credits award letters addressed to your parents, with your name listed on the letter
• school reports

Lived outside the UK, EU, or EEA?

You can still get student finance if you’ve lived outside of the UK, EU, or EEA during the five years before the start of your course, if you had a temporary break in residency.

To prove this was only a temporary break in residency, you can send:

• your visa showing that your time abroad was temporary
• temporary work contracts for you or your parents
• evidence that you maintained a connection with the UK, for example bank statements showing your UK address, mortgage statements, or utility bills

If you have not lived in the UK for at least five years before the start of your course, you could be eligible to apply for student finance as an EEA migrant worker, or a relative of one. Find out if you’re eligible.

There’s no upper age limit for student finance, but if you're over 60 on the first day of the first academic year of your course, you won’t be able to get the basic Maintenance Loan – the amount of loan you can get depends on your household income only.

Usually you can only get student finance for your first degree or higher-education qualification, even if you studied a long time ago or if the course was abroad. You might get funding for a second degree if you study an exception course such as Nursing, Midwifery or Teaching.    

As a general rule, a Tuition Fee Loan is available for the full length of your first course, plus one extra year if needed, for example, if:

• you change your course, or
• you have to re-sit a year, or
• you leave your course but start another                        

The number of years for which you are eligible for funding is calculated as:

Length of current course + one year – years of previous study

You will use up one year of funding when you register, regardless of how long you actually attend the course.

If you haven’t got enough years of funding left to cover your course, you’ll have to cover some of the cost yourself. You’ll usually still be able to get a Maintenance Loan in any self-funded years of study. You may also be able to get a bursary from your university.

You might be able to get an extra year of tuition fee support if you need to repeat a year due to compelling personal reasons, such as bereavement or illness.

Find out more about whether you can get an additional year of tuition fee support and how to apply for this.

The course you plan to study must be at an eligible uni or college in the UK, and one of the following:

• first degree, e.g. BA, BSc, or BEd
• foundation degree
• Certificate of Higher Education
• Higher National Certificate (HNC)
• Higher National Diploma (HND)
• Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE)
• Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE)
• integrated master's
• Initial Teacher Training (ITT)

You could also be eligible for funding if you’re studying a Level 4 or 5 qualification with HTQ approval e.g., Certificate, Diploma or NVQ. To find out if your course is HTQ approved and qualifies for undergraduate student finance, speak to your university or college. 

From 1 August 2018, students studying a postgraduate healthcare course will also be able to apply for a Tuition Fee Loan.

If you’re not sure whether your course qualifies for student finance, you should check with your uni or college.

You might also be eligible if you're:

• a spouse or civil partner living with a member of the UK Armed Forces serving overseas
• a child, stepchild, or adoptive child living with a member of the UK Armed Forces serving overseas
• a dependent parent living with either a child who is a member of the UK Armed Forces serving overseas, or the child's spouse or civil partner who is a member of the UK Armed Forces serving overseas

From 1 August 2018, students studying a distance learning course will also be able to get a Tuition Fee Loan if they're:

• a member of the UK Armed Forces who usually lives in England, but is serving in Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland
• a relative living with a member of the UK Armed Forces serving in Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland