Student Loans Guidance
Guidance for students in receipt of a student loan from Student Finance England/Wales/NI.
Payment of your student maintenance loan
Your student maintenance loan will only be paid after the first day of your course, and can take four working days to arrive in your account, and will only be released if you:
- have been assessed by your awarding body and have received confirmation that your loan has been approved
- have returned your declaration form
- are a first year student and have collected your smart card to confirm your attendance
- are a returning student and have scanned your smart card at a scanning station venue to confirm your attendance
Scanning station venues
If you are a returning student you must scan your smartcard at a scanning station in order to confirm your attendance for your loan to be released. The smart card scanning process is very quick, just present your smart card to the reader and press OK.
Library entrance gates are not attendance confirmation scanning stations. Swiping your card at the entrance will not confirm your attendance.
Smartcard scanning stations can be found in the following venues:
- Great North House Student Services (Ground Floor)
- Walton Library (located by the photocopiers)
- Level 2 Philip Robinson Library Cluster Room
- Old Library Building Cluster (OLUA)
- Medical School Undergraduate Office
- Dental School Office
Students on placements
When applying for student finance, you must notify your awarding body if you are due to be away from the University on an industrial or study abroad placement. This only applies if the placement is an official part of your degree programme.
If you've notified your awarding body, you do not need to scan your smart card to confirm your attendance and your loan will be paid automatically.
Tuition fee loans for EU students
If you started your course in 2020/21 or prior
If you started your course on or before 2020/21 and you are already eligible for financial support, you will remain eligible for the duration of your course. For example, if you started your course in September 2020 and were eligible for a tuition fee loan, you will continue to be eligible for the duration of your course.
If you started your course in 2021/22 onwards
From 1 August 2021, EU, other EEA and Swiss nationals and their family members who are not covered by the Withdrawal Agreements (Settled or Pre-settled status) will no longer be eligible for home fee status, undergraduate and postgraduate financial support.
These changes do not affect you if you are an Irish citizen living in the UK or Ireland.
Settled status
If you have been granted settled status under the EUSS you will generally be eligible for home fee status, tuition fee and maintenance support if you have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands for at least three years.
Pre-settled status
EU nationals, and their family members, will generally be awarded tuition fee support where the student has pre-settled status and has three years’ residence in the UK, Gibraltar, EEA and Switzerland. This means that you should be able to access tuition fee loans if you meet the residency requirements.
Get in touch
Entitlement to Student Finance England funding (or equivalent organisations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales) can be complex and it depends on individual circumstances. Please get in touch with our Student Financial Support Team by email if you have any questions.