If you’re starting a full postgraduate Doctoral course, you could get a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan. Content provided by Student Finance England.
You could get a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan of up to:
This is to help with your course and living costs while you’re studying, and has to be repaid.
Your loan payments will be spread out across all the academic years of your course. For example, if you’re studying over five years and apply for the maximum loan amount of £29,390, your payments would be £5,878 in each academic year. The loan is paid in three instalments at the start of each term.
You can apply for a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan amount in any year of your course, but if you apply after the first year, you might not get the maximum amount.
If you have a disability, including a long-term health condition, mental health condition, or specific learning difficulty, such as dyslexia, you might be able to get Disabled Students’ Allowance. This doesn’t have to be paid back. You don’t have to be getting a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan to apply.
Applications for 2024 to 2025 Postgraduate Doctoral courses are now open! The quickest and easiest way to apply is online at www.gov.uk/studentfinance.
When you apply for student finance, you'll need to agree to Student Finance England's terms and conditions.
You can apply for a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan in any year of your course, but you might not get the full amount if you apply after the first year of your course.
To get a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan, you must apply no more than nine months after the first day of the final academic year of your course.
You don't need to apply each year for a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan.
If Student Finance England ask you for any evidence, send this as quickly as possible to avoid delays with your application.
If you don’t have a UK passport, you may have to send Student Finance England evidence, such as a non-UK passport, or a copy of your UK birth or adoption certificate.
You should send this as quickly as possible to avoid any delay in your application being processed. Remember to include your Customer Reference Number with everything you send them.
In some circumstances, you may be asked to send Student Finance England additional information or evidence, for example, evidence of your previous addresses or documents from the Home Office. They can’t process your application until they have everything they need, so you should send them anything they ask for as soon as possible, so your application isn’t delayed.
If any of your details change after you’ve applied for student finance, don’t worry – you can simply update your application. You can use your online account to make changes to your personal details before or after your course has started. To update any other details, such as your university or course, you need to send Student Finance England a completed postgraduate 'Change of circumstances' form. You can download this from www.gov.uk/doctoral-loan.
Once Student Finance England has assessed your application, they’ll send you a letter confirming how much Postgraduate Doctoral Loan you’re getting. The letter will also show the dates they expect to pay your Postgraduate Doctoral Loan to you. You should keep this letter safe, as your university might ask to see it when you register.
If you’re starting a full-time or part-time postgraduate Doctoral course in the 2023 to 2024 academic year, you could get a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan to help towards your course and living costs.
To apply for a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan you must:
If you’re an EU national or a family member of an EU national, you may be eligible if all of the following apply:
You may also be eligible if you’re a UK national (or family member of a UK national) or an Irish citizen who either:
You can apply for funding if:
You may also be able to apply for a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan if your residency status is one of the following:
You could also be eligible if you’re not a UK national and are either:
To be eligible for support under the long residence category, you must have lived in the UK for three years before the first day of your course and have held a form of leave to remain in the UK issued by the Home Office during that time. You must also live in England on the first day of your course.
You must be under 60 years of age on the first day of the first academic year of your course to get a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan.
If you have a loan from a previous undergraduate course or postgraduate master’s course, it won’t affect your eligibility for a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan.
You can only get a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan if you don’t already have an equivalent Doctoral qualification, such as a PhD.
If you borrow a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan for a course but don’t complete it, you won’t be able to get a second Postgraduate Doctoral Loan. However, if you have to withdraw from your course for compelling personal reasons, such as illness, you may still be able to apply for another Postgraduate Doctoral Loan.You must be studying at an eligible university in the UK and your course must be a full postgraduate Doctoral course leading to a qualification, such as:
A Postgraduate Doctoral Loan is not available to ‘top up’ a lower-level qualification to a Doctoral degree. The course must be a full standalone Doctoral course.
You can choose to study your course at a university in person or by distance learning. Your course must last between three and eight years, and can be studied on a full-time or part-time basis.
You'll be due to start making repayments either:
but only if you're earning over a certain amount of money, which is currently £21,000 a year, £1,750 a month, or £404 a week. You'll be due to start repaying the April after you finish or leave your course, but only if you're earning over a certain amount of money, which is currently £21,000 a year, £1,750 a month, or £404 a week.
Any loan remaining 30 years after you’re due to start making repayments will be cancelled.
You’ll repay 6% of what you earn over the threshold. So if you’re paid monthly and earn £2,500 per month before tax, you’ll repay 6% of the difference between what you earn and the threshold.
For example:
£2,500 - £1,750 = £750
6% of £750 = £45
The table below shows how much you’ll repay towards your loan.
| Yearly income before tax | Monthly income before tax | Monthly repayment |
|---|---|---|
| £21,000 | £1,750 | £0 |
| £22,000 | £1,833 | £4 |
| £23,500 | £1,958 | £12 |
| £25,000 | £2,083 | £19 |
| £30,000 | £2,500 | £45 |
A student loan repayment will be taken even if you don’t earn £21,000 in a year, but earn over the weekly or monthly threshold at any time, for example, if you work overtime or get a bonus.
If you’ve had a previous loan from Student Finance England, you’ll continue to repay this loan at the same time. How much you’ll repay depends on when you started your undergraduate course.
Courses that started after 1 September 2012
If you borrowed a loan for your undergraduate course that started after 1 September 2012, you’ll repay 9% of your income above ££27,295 towards that loan, and 6% of your income above £21,000 towards your Postgraduate Doctoral Loan.
If you borrowed a Postgraduate Loan for a master’s course as well as a Doctoral course, the repayment amount due will remain at 6%. This will go towards any loans borrowed for both master’s and Doctoral courses.
The table below shows how much you’ll repay towards your loans.
| Yearly income before tax | Monthly income before tax | Undergraduate loan repayment | Postgraduate loan repayment |
|---|---|---|---|
| £21,000 | £1,750 | £0 | £0 |
| £22,000 | £1,833 | £0 | £4 |
| £23,500 | £1,958 | £0 | £12 |
| £25,000 | £2,083 | £0 | £19 |
| £27,000 | £2,250 | £3 | £30 |
Courses that started before September 2012
If you borrowed a loan for your undergraduate course that started before 1 September 2012, you’ll repay 9% of your income above £19,390 towards that loan, and 6% of your income above £21,000 towards your Postgraduate Doctoral Loan.
The table below shows how much you’ll repay towards your loans.
| Yearly income before tax | Monthly income before tax | Undergraduate loan repayment | Postgraduate loan repayment |
|---|---|---|---|
| £19,390 | £1,615 | £0 | £0 |
| £21,000 | £1,750 | £12 | £0 |
| £25,000 | £2,083 | £42 | £19 |
| £30,000 | £2,500 | £79 | £45 |
You can find out more about repaying your loans at www.gov.uk/repaying-your-student-loan.