Postgraduate Masters Loan

• The loans are non-means tested and available to students who will be under the age of 60 on the first day of the first year of their programme. In this instance, the academic year is a period of 12 months starting on 1 September (if your course starts between 1 August and 31 December), 1 January (if your course starts between 1 January and 31 March), 1 April (if your course starts between 1 April and 30 June) or 1 July (if your course starts between 1 July and 31 July).

• The loan is available to UK nationals (and individuals with settled status in the UK) who have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands for three years by the first day of their course (a temporary absence for study or travel will not harm an application).

• Students must also have been most recently resident in England, which means that Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish applicants need to already be living in England to be eligible (and not have moved to England just to study). For students from other parts of the UK, please see the following pages for postgraduate loans in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
  

• If you're an EU student and started or are starting a course on or after 1 August 2021, you must have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme to get student finance.

• Distance learning applicants must reside in England on the first day of their course and then remain residing in either the UK for the whole course (if a UK national) or in England for the whole course (if an EU national).

• Students who already hold a Masters qualification (or an equivalent or higher-level qualification, which includes undergraduate integrated Masters qualifications, such as MSci or MEng, etc.) will not be eligible for the loan.

• The loan is not available to students wanting to ‘top up’ a lower-level qualification to a Masters degree. The course must be a full, standalone Masters course.

• The loan is not available for PGCert (Postgraduate Certificate) and PGDip (Postgraduate Diploma) courses, or where the postgraduate course is funded by undergraduate student finance, such as Initial Teacher Training, integrated Masters (MSci, MEng) or Physiotherapy.

• Full-time programmes can be 1 or 2 years in duration.

• Part-time programmes lasting 2 to 4 academic years are eligible, so long as they are no more than twice the length of the equivalent full-time course. Where no equivalent full-time course exists, part-time programmes can be up to 3 years in duration. If your course does not meet these duration requirements then it is not eligible for a Postgraduate Masters Loan.

• Those wishing to use Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) credits will not be eligible to apply for the loan. APL refers to the process by which this University (and many others) gives credit against learning achieved by an individual before entry to a programme of study at Birmingham.

• Postgraduate students can apply for a single allowance Disabled Students' Allowances (DSA) payment of up to £27,783 (2025/26) to support you in your course. You do not need to apply for the Postgraduate Masters Loan to receive this support. However, in all instances, when DSA support is required for a Masters course students should complete a DSA1 full form.

• Students are not eligible for the loan if they are eligible to receive any other bursary from any of the following organisations:

  • National Health Service (NHS)
  • Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS)
  • Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS)

For more information, or to seek clarification as to eligible programmes, check the Government Postgraduate Loan website.

You apply directly to Student Finance England (SFE) for the Doctoral Loan. You can find out more via the Postgraduate Masters Loans website.

• We recommend that you apply for a place on your course at the University of Birmingham prior to applying for a Postgraduate Masters Loan.
• You will need to know your course name, start date and the duration of your course in order to apply. Please use our programme list to select the correct subject/course name on the Masters Loan application form.
• The deadline to apply is nine months after the first day of the last year of your course.
• You only need to apply once for the Postgraduate Masters Loan, even if your course is longer than one year. Student Finance England will contact you before the next year of your course starts to tell you how much you’ll get.

• There is no minimum loan amount that can be requested. The amount requested can be altered up to one month before the end of the course.

• Money will be paid directly to the student, it is at the discretion of the student how they intend for their tuition to be paid. Information on paying your tuition fees can be found here.

• Payments will be split equally across three termly instalments per academic year.

• As with undergraduate support, students will need to provide both valid UK bank details and a National Insurance Number (NINO) in their own name.

• The interest rate charged is normally the Retail Price Index plus 3%.

• Repayments will start to become due on April following the academic year in which the course is completed.

• The repayment amount will be 6% of income above the relevant threshold.

• Repayments will be made concurrently with any other student loan repayments due. If you are repaying both an undergraduate and the new postgraduate loan you will have a 15% (UG 9% and PG 6%) total deduction taken from your salary.

• Any outstanding balance will be written off after the 30th anniversary the repayments became due.

• Transfers between eligible postgraduate Masters courses are permitted.
• Repeat years of study will not be funded (only in exceptional circumstances as determined by the Student Loans Company).
• Further funding is not available where the course is not completed in the specified length. Although, students can suspend and resume their course (no payments are made during the suspension period).