If you’re starting a full-time or part-time taught or research master’s course, you could get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan. Content provided by Student Finance England.
The Postgraduate Master's Loan is to help with your course and living costs while you’re studying, and has to be paid back. The amount you can get doesn’t depend on your household income.
You can apply for a Postgraduate Master’s Loan of up to £12,471 if your course starts on or after 1 August 2024 as a contribution towards your course and living costs.
If your course started between:
Your loan payments will be spread out across all the academic years of your course. For example, if you apply for the maximum loan amount in 2024 to 2025, and are studying over two years, your payments would be around £6,235 in each academic year. The loan is then paid in three instalments throughout the academic year.
You’ll have to repay any Postgraduate Master’s Loan you borrow.
Part-time study
If you’re thinking about studying a part-time master’s course, your payments will be spread out over the full course duration. For example, if you apply for the maximum amount of Postgraduate Master’s Loan in 2024 to 2025 and study over four years, you’ll get around £3,117 in each year of your course.
If your part-time course doesn’t have a full-time equivalent, it can only be a maximum of three years in length.
Disabled Students' Allowance
If you have a disability, including a mental health condition, long-term health condition, or specific learning difficulty, such as dyslexia, you might be able to get Disabled Students’ Allowance. These don’t have to be paid back, and you don’t have to be getting a Postgraduate Master's Loan to apply.
Whether you can get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan depends on your:
To get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan, you must meet certain criteria on nationality and residency, age, and previous study.
To apply for a Postgraduate Master’s 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 Master’s 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:
You must have been living in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for three continuous years before 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 Master’s Loan.
The academic year starts on:
You can only get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan if you don’t already have a master’s qualification, or a higher-level qualification such as a PhD. If you already hold a qualification that is equivalent to, or at a higher level than, a master’s level qualification, you won’t be able to get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan.
MAs from Scottish universities, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, or Trinity College Dublin are at a lower level than a postgraduate master’s qualification. If you have an MA from one of these universities, you may be able to get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan.
You won’t be able to get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan if you’ve previously had Government funding for a postgraduate course unless you only got Disabled Students’ Allowances. But if you had to withdraw from your course for compelling personal reasons, such as illness, you may still be able to apply for another Postgraduate Master's Loan.
The course you’re studying must be at an eligible uni or college in the UK, and must be a full postgraduate master’s course, leading to a qualification such as:
A Postgraduate Master’s Loan is not available to students wanting to ‘top up’ a lower-level qualification to a master’s degree. The course must be a full, standalone master’s course (a full master's course is made up of 180 credits).
You can’t get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan for certain postgraduate courses, such as PgCert (Postgraduate Certificate), PgDip (Postgraduate Diploma), or where the postgraduate course is funded by undergraduate student finance, such as:
You can choose to study your course in person at the university, or by distance learning, and your course can be:
If you’re not sure if your course qualifies for a Postgraduate Master’s Loan, you should check with your university.
Master of Architecture
If you plan to study a full-time Master of Architecture (MArch) part 2 course which leads to a qualification as an architect, you should apply for undergraduate support. These courses are prescribed by the Architects Registration Board (ARB) and may include RIBA courses.
The Postgraduate Master’s Loan will only be available for your MArch if any of the following applies:
When you apply for student finance, you'll need to agree to Student Finance England's terms and conditions.
You can apply for the full Postgraduate Master’s Loan amount in any year of your course.
Applications for 2024 to 2025 Postgraduate Master’s Loans are now open!
The quickest and easiest way to apply is online at www.gov.uk/studentfinance.
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/masters-loan.
Once Student Finance England has assessed your application, they’ll send you a letter confirming how much Postgraduate Master’s Loan you’re getting. The letter will also show the dates they expect to pay your Postgraduate Master’s Loan to you. You should keep this letter safe, as your university might ask to see it when you register.
You'll be due to start making repayments the April after you finish or leave your course, and only if your income is over the repayment threshold. The current threshold is £21,000 a year, £1,750 a month, or £404 a week before tax and National Insurance.
You might be asked to make repayments before you’re earning over the threshold, but only if you’ve been overpaid and Student Finance England can’t adjust your loan payments to correct it.You can find out more about repaying your loans at www.gov.uk/repaying-your-student-loan.
The amount you repay will depend on your income, not how much you borrowed. You’ll repay 6% of your income over £21,000 per year, £1,750 a month, or £404 a week.
So, if you’re paid monthly and earn £2,500 a month before tax, you’ll repay 6% of the difference between what you earn and the monthly threshold.
£2,500 - £1,750 = £750
6% of £750 = £45
So your Postgraduate Master’s Loan repayment would be £45 in that month.
The table below gives some further examples of how much you could repay:
| 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 |
| £27,000 | £2,250 | £30 |
| £30,000 | £2,500 | £45 |
If your income changes, the amount you repay will change too.
If you stop working or start to earn below the repayment threshold, you’ll repay nothing at all until your income is over the threshold again.
You’ll make a repayment if you go over the weekly or monthly threshold at any point during the year, for example, if you get a bonus or work overtime. You can request a refund at the end of the tax year if your total income was below £21,000.
Borrowing a Postgraduate Master’s Loan won’t affect the repayment of any other student loans you already have for an undergraduate course. If you’ve had any other loans from the Student Loans Company, you’ll repay these at the same time.
How much you’ll repay towards the student loans you already have will depend on when you studied.
You’ll repay 9% of your income over £27,295 towards the student loans you borrowed for your undergraduate course, and 6% of your income over £21,000 towards your Postgraduate Master's Loan.
This table shows how much you’ll repay towards both 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 |
| £28,000 | £2,333 | £5 | £34 |
You’ll repay 9% of your income over the repayment threshold (currently £19,895) towards the student loans you borrowed for your undergraduate course, and 6% of your income over £21,000 towards your Postgraduate Master's Loan.
This table shows how much you’ll repay towards both your loans.
| Yearly income before tax | Monthly income before tax | Undergraduate loan repayment | Postgraduate loan repayment |
|---|---|---|---|
| £19,895 | £1,657 | £0 | £0 |
| £21,000 | £1,750 | £8 | £0 |
| £25,000 | £2,083 | £38 | £20 |
| £30,000 | £2,500 | £75 | £45 |
You’ll continue to repay or defer the loans from your undergraduate course, and you’ll repay 6% of your income over £21,000 towards your Postgraduate Master's Loan. You can’t defer your Postgraduate Master’s Loan. Your repayments will automatically stop if your income falls below the threshold.
Interest is charged on your Postgraduate Master’s Loan from the day Student Finance England makes the first payment to you, until your loan is repaid in full or cancelled.
Interest will normally be charged at the Retail Price Index (RPI) plus 3%. RPI is a measure of UK inflation, and measures changes to the cost of living in the UK.
Any Postgraduate Master’s Loan balance remaining 30 years after it has become due to repay, will be cancelled.
For more information on repayment, visit www.gov.uk/repaying-your-student-loan.