Webinar: Undergraduate Student Funding video transcript

And we're going to do this evening for the next 20 to 25 minutes, followed by a Q and A is just have a look at undergraduate student funding. So what's available, how you apply, how you repay. So we'll go through, you know, from start to finish hopefully

exactly what, what you need to look out for and, and be aware of. Just a brief few words on growth

and opportunity within, you know, within university, in the sector. So, you know, individuals who choose to attend university

earn substantially more over their lifetimes compared to those who do not, regardless of region.

We know that by age of 31 graduates in the East Midlands earn 37% more than non graduates from the same region, and graduate skills, importantly, are estimated to have an economic impact of £95 billion pounds nationwide and £7 billion pounds in the East Midlands area alone.

Next slide please. Okay,

So student funding - your two main costs each year at university, Are your tuition fees and your living costs tuition fees.

That's the amount of money that you need to pay to the university to be on the course that you're on. And we know that from September 2025, fees are going to be £9,535 pounds per year. The other area is living costs. Now, living costs

essentially covers absolutely everything that isn't specifically the tuition fee. So living costs are and can include accommodation and bills.

So that might be university halls or private rented accommodation, or even if you're living a living at home or in your own home accommodation and bills. It also covers food, travel, clothes, study equipment, so books, pens, paper, everything like that, comes under the banner of living costs.

If we look at approximate prices, an approximate cost that you're going to be looking at, accommodation in university whole starts, just over £115 pounds per week. That would be for a room in a, in a shared flat. Obviously, accommodation can go up depending on the, you know, where you're living. So in university halls, although we start at £115, you can go the average is probably about £160, but some, some of the high end accommodation may, you know, be getting towards the £200 pounds a week.

But it's important to know that there are there are rooms and there is accommodation available at the at the lower rates.

If you're living at home, obviously your accommodation may be cheaper. If you're living in private rented, then obviously your accommodation may be may vary as well.

Weekly food shops. We we tend to anticipate anywhere between £30 and £50 pounds per week as a, as a basic level,

a basic, you know, cost for, for food and, you know, general upkeep, gym membership, is is affordable at £15 pounds a month.

If a student wants to, to join the gym and get involved in any activities there. You can eat on campus, you know, relatively

good value as well as good value at £2.50 pound starting point there. Theater tickets for, you know, the Derby around £5 pounds.

No cinema tickets, around £8.50 pounds. So, you know, very, you know, good, good, affordable, affordable prices

in Derby and the Derby area. Next slide please.

Okay. So the support available, comes in in various various areas.

And we will have a look at these in, in detail specifically. So there's the tuition fee loan, which as it suggests is the loan that pays for the tuition fee. That's all that does. So if your fees are £9,535, the loan is £9,535.

And that's the tuition fee. The maintenance loan is the living costs loans. That's the amount of money that's paid to the students.

If you're studying, an allied health course. So nursing, occupational therapy, diagnostic radiography,

and courses like that, you can receive additional support from the, from the NHS. So the National Health Service, also most if not all universities will offer some kind of bursary or scholarship, to their students. And we'll have a look at those as we, as we go through the presentation.

Okay. So in detail the tuition fee loan. So tuition fees from September 2025 are going to be £9,535 pounds per year.

Therefore, the tuition fee loan will also be £9,535 per year. If you take out the loan, you don't need to pay your course fees upfront.

Essentially, what will happen is when you apply for the loan, that amount of money is paid direct to the university by the Student Loans Company.

So it's one of the only elements of support, that doesn't land in the student's bank account directly; It's paid direct to the university, so there's no there's nothing for the student to do. With the tuition fee loan, it is a direct payment from from the student loans company to the university. It's non-income assessed. So there's no assessment of household income for the tuition fee loan. If you want to take out the loan you can take out the loan.

There's no there's no assessment of any new level of income for that. Be mindful if you don't take out the loan, then you will need to pay your tuition fees upfront on an annual basis. So if you choose not to take out the loan, just be mindful that you will be responsible for paying the tuition fees to the university yourself. The maintenance loan, the living costs loan.

So these are the figures based on current academic year 24/25. We're expecting a an uplift in 25-25 of about three, just over 3%.

In the same way that the tuition fee loan is, is all the tuition fee is going up from this year to next.

So these figures but with an increase of around 3%. So if a student is living away from the parental home, then the maximum they can receive is £10,227. And that's based on a household income under £25,000 pounds.

And we will have a look at some of these figures in more detail in the next couple of slides. So maximum £10,227. If a student is living at home and commuting to university, the maximum is £8,610.

So there's still a loan available even if you're living at home, even if you're living at home locally, there's still loans available.

Slightly more if you're living away from home, because the expectation is that your accommodation is going to be higher. If you love living at home, your accommodation costs would be anticipated to be significantly lower. However, you may have increased commuting costs so it's a bit of a balance between living at home, living away from home, but that's reflected in the rates that are available.

These rates can be slightly higher if you studying one of the allied health courses because they are classed as longer courses.

So rather than being, for example, a 40 week academic year, they're, they're often up to like a, you know, almost like a 50 week academic year. So for, for nursing and associated courses, you may see that these figures, you know, do increase slightly higher than, than what is quoted.

Okay. So like we've said, the higher rate for away from home and living at home is £10,227 and the £8.610

at the other end of that scale is the lower rates. So that's for household incomes that are assessed over £65,000 pounds.

So the minimum rate for living away from home is £4,767. The minimum rate for living at home is £3,790.

Now in between the the top rate in the lower rate. You know, you know any, any number of figures based on the actual household income.

So what we've got on the screen is just a few bands just to show you, give you a general, you know, ballpark figure of what you would be looking at if your household income, for example, was around £45,000 pounds and you're living away from home, you get £7,304 or thereabouts.

If your household income was about £42,500, then you get somewhere between the £8,035 and the £7,304. There's there's no set bands. It is your maintenance loan is calculated by the exact amount of, gross household income.

So if we can have a look at the next slide, we can see how you can find that information out. So there is a student funding calculator. And it lives on Gov.uk. So you can either navigate there through Gov.uk - education and learning student finance calculator.

Any kind of internet search on any of the key words student funding, finance calculator. It will take you straight here.

It asks you five questions and only five questions. It asks you what year you starting. It asks you what type of student you are. So UK full time. Asks you when your course starts. At the moment it would have been updated for academic year 24/25, so there'll be no option for 25/26. But don't let that put you off. Just click the option for 24/25, It's as near as makes no difference.

When it comes to the to the figures that it will present you with, it will ask you, where are you going to be living so at home or away from home.

So just two choices there and it will ask you what your annual household income is. So that is parental household income.

We'll have a look at how it's assessed. But for most students that will that will mean parental household income.

So put a figure in there and it will give you an answer. It will tell you what Your tuition fee will be. Now the tuition fee based on £9,250,

because that's what it currently is this academic year. So don't worry too much about the tuition fee loan. You will always be entitled to whatever the tuition fee is.

You will always be entitled to that amount as a loan. The maintenance loan will be a very simple calculation,

based on where you're living. So home or away from home and what your household income is. So the maintenance loan will, will be based on that. So this will give you, based on five questions. It will give you a really clear idea of what your maintenance loan is going to be. If household incomes in the £25,000, you'll get the maximum. If it's over 65, you'll get the minimum. But any figure in between it will give you a a really well, it will give you an accurate figure of what your maintenance loan could be. So a really useful tool, you know, you know, pre-entry so pre-application.

So, you know, I suppose almost about three months away from the application opening and nine, nine months away from university starting or even ten months away, you can have a really good idea of what you know, what's going to be available to you. So - really useful tool, really simple to use.

I would, I would really advise that you have, you know, spend a few minutes and have a look at that. Okay. So the assessment for support. So essentially what we're looking at here is how how your student funding is assessed. The most full time undergraduate students. So for most most of the audience this evening, I would think, if you're under 25, student financing and would look to assess you only parental household income if parents are separated or divorced, it's the income of the natural parent that you normally live with. And if that parent has remarried or lives with a partner, then it is their income as well. So any any variation on the, on the family unit. So it could be mum and dad.

It could be mum and step dad, Dad and step mum - it could be any variation You know, of the family of the family unit.

If you're living with with just one parent, then it's just that parent's income who is assessed. Anyone else in the household?

Siblings so brothers, sisters. Their income is disregarded. It is only, the income of the parents.

So Student Finance England only ever assess the income of what they call the sponsor. And the sponsor is only ever a parent, or parents or it's a partner.

If the student is eligible for independent status, which is the second half of this slide. So independent status. So you are dependent if you're under 25. You can be independent. And what independent means is that you're assessed on your own circumstances.

So you're not assessed on, you know, parental income. You are assessed as you, as the students. So to be eligible for independent status, you can be over 25 on the first day of the academic year. So if you're over 25, then purely by date of birth you are an independent students, regardless of age. If you're self-supporting or you've been self-supporting for three years prior to the start of the course.

So, for example, you start university and you're you're 21, you've been working full time since you were 18. And you can provide evidence of this to Student Finance England, that you've been supporting yourself financially for three years.

Then regardless of age, they will class you as an independent students. If you're married, regardless of age, you're independent.

If you have a child. If you're strange to me, parents again, regardless of age, you can be classed as independent.

If you've got no living parents, you will automatically be classed as independent, sometimes as an evidence requirement from SFE.

So they may ask you for, you know, information or evidence around estrangement. Or if you tell them you've got a child and they look for a birth certificate or evidence of child benefit. But a very simple, you know, evidence requirements, for independent status.

But if you're under 25, living with parents, not been working for three years, you're not married, you don't have a child, then you will be classed as dependent. Therefore you will be assessed on parental household income. But any of these conversations can be, you know, can be held with with SFE at the appropriate time. But just to give you an idea of how funding is assessed

okay, so applying for student funding. So the next the next big step, along the way, the application itself is a single point of application for tuition fee and living costs. So you don't apply for tuition fees then apply for your maintenance loan.

It's a single point of application for for all of your student funding. For students starting in September 2025, the application will open,

and then we have a provisional date of the 1st of March, 2025. So that is when we expect and we anticipate that the application

will will go live. So you can apply for student funding, you know, nine months before the start of the course.

So nine months before you start in September, there is a deadline that you'll, you'll,

you'll often seen quoted and you'll, you might hear about it. Your school or your college may talk to you about a deadline for application.

It may be part of any UCAS correspondence or you may see it, you know, bandied around, but there is a deadline of of May.

So the opens in March. There's a deadline of May. And they'll say so long as you apply by the end of May, then we'll guarantee you funding by September. So yeah, this is a this is a deadline, but it's essentially quite a soft deadline. It just means that if you apply before the end of May, that they will guarantee that your funding is in place, before September. It isn't, however, an absolute an absolute deadline.

You can apply for funding up to nine months after the start of the course. So if you start your course in September 25th, you could,

if your circumstances dictated or if you wanted to, you could apply for funding as late as May 2026. There's nothing to stop you doing that. We wouldn't recommend you do that. We'd always recommend that you apply well, well in advance. And just to be really clear and some time, you know, sometimes not very clear, but you don't need to have a confirmed place at university in order to apply for your student funding.

Don't wait until you've got a place on a course. Don't wait until you know exactly what you're doing. Don't wait until the summer.

Don't wait until you've gone through clearing or you've got your exam results. Apply for funding as soon as you can. If it opens on the 1st of March, you can apply for student funding on the 1st of March, regardless of, you know, of how many, how many universities you looked at, how many courses you've looked at, if you if you narrowed it down to six universities and eight courses, just pick your best guess. The application won't let you, complete or it won't complete the application without you having the name of a university in the name of a course. So give it your best guess. If you can't decide what your best guess is, get someone else to guess for you.

It doesn't really matter. Student funding is the same nationally whether you go wherever you go to university in the country, the funding is the same.

So put your best guess, on the application. The only really important thing to to note is that in September, when you enrol at university, you just need to make sure that the university that you're enroling at is the same as the university on your application.

Because when you enrol, the university will notify student financing them that you have enroled. Therefore, the university they've enroled needs to match the university on your application. If he doesn't match the university on your application, and it may delay your funding by by a few weeks while the system sort themselves out.

So at the point of application, you can put whichever university you want put your best guess down

if it's still the same when you enrol, there's nothing you need to do if it changes when your exam results come through, walk through clearing or through any period of time through the application process, just log back on, change the name of the university

and for the course it will update overnight. Nothing more to do, but just make sure that the university is match at the point of enrolments. That's that's just really important.

Okay, so just skipping forward a little bit. So if you've applied for student funding it's all been approved. Everything's come through. And then you enrol at university in September. So at that point your loans are paid in three instalments

at the point of enrolment. And so after your application, you will have received a payment schedule

so you'll know exactly what you're getting in when you're getting it. So there won't be any surprises. So three instalments, you get a payment in September, payment in January, and a payment in April. So you get a third of your funding on each payments. The January and the April payments are absolutely set in stone.

You will get a date and you will get an amount, you know, on your schedule. And those dates will not change the September amount.

The amount will be it will be absolutely correct. But the date may change. They will quote a date which will be the first possible day of the academic year. So say the first day of the academic year is the 14th of September and that's a Monday.

If you enrol on that Monday, you won't get your money on that day. It takes 3 to 5 days after enrolment to get your funds.

So although your payment schedule may say Monday the 14th of September, you may not get your money until the Thursday or the Friday.

So just be mindful of that. You know, if you're enroling on the Monday, you may you may not get your money for, you know, for three, 3 to 5 days.

So the dates on your payment schedule, you know, will be correct to a certain extent. January and April absolutely set in stone.

But September may, you know, you may receive your payment a few days after the date. The stated it depends when you enrol.

And again, just to be clear at this point and we will move on to repayments that loans - nothing's repayable until after the course is completed.

So while you're studying, you know, for the three years or four years when you're studying, although you borrowing the money from the Student Loans Company,

you're not making any repayments at that point. In the second half of this slide, again, when you do fall into repayment

and that's normally in the April after you graduate, you pay nothing back until you start earning £25,000 pounds a year.

So earnings under £25,000 pounds, there are no repayments. So the threshold is £25,000 pounds for repayments.

And you pay 9% of your income over that threshold. So 9% of your income equates to about seven which equates to £7.50 pounds,

per month for every thousand pounds you earn over the threshold, on the basis that if you're earning £26,000 pounds, 9% of £1,000 pounds, then 90 pounds or over 12 months, £7.50 pounds a month. But we do have some slides going forward which will give you a clearer idea of what repayments will look like, for you in the real world in the future.

The repayment term is 40 years or whatever you borrowed. There's a maximum repayments over 40 years.

Any remaining balances after that period are written off. So, you know, some students will will pay all of their loans back.

Some students will pay none of their loans back. Most students will pay some of their loans back. But regardless of how much you've repaid after 40 years, any remaining balances you know, so any any, any, any, any actual loans, any interest or any balances at all after four years are written off, regardless of how of how much is outstanding. So next slide please. And we'll start to have a look at what repayments really look like.

So in a really simple terms up to £25,000 pounds. The monthly repayment is zero. So you pay nothing back per month. Bear in mind that you do. You make repayments are stoppages through your wages so you don't receive your wages. And then you've got to go and pay the student loans company by the time you get paid, your your loan would have been your repayment would have been taken along with income tax and national insurance.

And we'll have a look at that, in a second. But again, based on the 9% over the £25,000 pounds, like I said, £26,000 pounds is £1,000 pound over the threshold, 9% of £1,000 pounds, is is £90 pounds a year, which is £7.50 pounds a month over 12 months. So the more you earn, the more you will repay.

If you're earning £30,000 pounds a year, you're £5,000 pounds over the threshold. So yeah, yeah, £37.50 pounds a month.

If you're earning £40,000 pounds a year, you're £112.50 pounds a month. So absolutely, the more you earn, the more you will repay.

But obviously the more you earn, the more you will be receiving in your wages. Therefore, you know you'll be in a better position to to make these repayments.

But it's really important to kind of understand the context of what these repayments will mean for you in the real world.

It's important to know that it's not scenes that the government don't see as debt. Banks don't see It as debt. Lenders don't see it as debt. It won't affect any, any any of your credit score. It doesn't, it doesn't affect your ability to get a mortgage. It's not seen as debt.

It's an amount of money owed to the government that's repaid based on income. If you have no income, you make no repayments.

So it's really clear to to understand that.

And if we can have the next slide please, that hopefully will just for a little bit of context into what these repayments look like and may feel like in the, in the real world. So like I've said before, the monthly repayment is taken at source. So it's taken out of your gross income before you receive your, you know, your monthly net income. So again, if we if we just pick if we pick the £30,000 pounds for example, so you're earning £30,000 pounds gross. You're going to be paying £37.50 pounds in maintenance loan.

Well sorry, in student loans back, you know, back to the government. But you'll also be paying £290 pounds in income tax and £145 pounds in National Insurance.

So those will be your deductions before you receive, receive your wages.

If you're only £40,000 pounds again, absolutely. Your student loan repayments will increase to £112.50 pounds, but your income tax will increase to 457. Your National Insurance will increase to £229 pounds.

Well, I suppose what we're trying to kind of make sense of is that is that regardless of how much you borrow in your student loan,

so you could have tuition free loan and maintenance loan for three years, for four years. So, you know, you could be £50 or £60,000 pounds that you're repayments, but don't focus too much on on what's outstanding. Obviously, you know, be mindful of what's outstanding. And you know and be aware of what's outstanding.

But the focus really is is on the repayments. If you average, you know, £30,000 pounds through those 40 years,

you're going to be paying, you know, you're going to be paying a fraction of what you borrowed, really.

But again, a little bit of context, just, it's not going to be the most significant.

It's certainly not the most significant deduction from your from your growth salary. And it probably won't be the most significant,

you know, thing that you will pay for. You know, you know, you know, going going through your working life. So just just be mindful of that. Just you know, if you have a look at the numbers there and you I look at them there, then the monthly repayment is not the most significant. You know, outgoing it's not the most significant deduction.

And also the repayment terms, it's 40 years. which yep, 40 years is 40 years. There's no escaping that. But you'll pay income and tax and National insurance forever. But you won't pay your monthly repayment for a student loan forever, if that's any kind of any kind of reassurance. Yeah.

So just going back to the nursing and allied health, health care courses. So we're looking at, nursing, occupational therapy, diagnostic radiography. And I think we now extend to physiotherapy and midwifery, if you're doing any of those courses, you can be eligible to receive additional support from the NHS Learning Support Fund.

Now, this support is not means tested. So there's no assessment of household income. And more importantly is non-repayable. So it's not it's not a loan. It's not a loan. It is. It is you know, it's a grant essentially. So if you're eligible for this, you will receive it

each year, but you won't ever have to pay it back. So for example, if you're doing nursing, you'll get a £5,000 pounds training grants as there's no there's no other assessment of eligibility other than that you are on that course. So £5,000 pounds is a training ground and there's £2,000 pounds parental support.

So for students who have children or students who have a child or, you know, a child or children, you can also receive an additional £2,000 pounds.

So there's also additional support for travel. And accommodation expenses whilst you're on placement. But for a dependent student, for example, with no children so no dependents, you will get the £5,000 pound training grant

In addition to your student funding from the Student Loans Company. However, the NHS support is non-repayable.

From an application point of view is a separate application through the NHS. In order to apply for this support, you need first to have,

applied for your student funding through Student Finance England. So from a timescale point of view,

the NHS application doesn't open until around July. So the student funding application opens in March.

Deadline is the, you know, the end of May if you want to guarantee funding in place for September. The NHS funding opens in July on the basis that there is no assessment to take place other than, you know, other than the fact that this is the course that you're doing

and you're eligible for the student funding, they normally ask you as part of the application just to send a scanned copy of your of your student funding document.

So that's the only criteria for eligibility. But again, just to bear in mind when you're looking at what you're going to be entitled to from a funding point of view, if you're on a nursing or allied healthcare course, you'll be eligible at the very least for the training grants, if not more. So have a look at that.

And you got have internet search on NHS LSF. We'll, we'll take you straight to that information.

Okay. So when you're looking for information, about what's available to you and what's out there, there's loads of information, online individual university websites. There's the student funding calculator that we referred to, on, you know, that UK that is Student Finance England information on a site called the Student Room and then Gov.uk. That's where the student funding calculator lives.

And that's where the student funding application lives. So the point of application go on to Gov.uk under Education and Learning student finance. And the application is there. And like we've said single point of application for all of your funding.

The only caveat to that is that if you're doing a nursing course or an allied health care course, it's the separate application for the NHS.

But if you're not doing one of those courses, all of your funding, single point of application through Student Finance England, okay.

Essential tips.

So realistically the most important one always is apply for student funding as soon as possible.

Again, as we said, don't wait to to find out what you do know where you're going.

If the application is open in March, apply in March. Single point of application.

Start with the first question and with the last question it will ask you a lot of questions in your first year.

The application process has never met you before, so it will ask you a lot of questions.

You know, about yourself, about the course that you're doing, about the funding that you're applying for.

It will ask you questions about your sponsor so that that, you know, may well be your parents. So we ask you to nominate your sponsor.

So if you sponsors are your parents and it asks you to nominate them, you'll ask you for a name and an email address.

Your sponsors parents will then get contacted you by SFA, asking them to provide details of their household income.

Sorry to a single point of application and it will be a lot of questions, but you don't have to do it in one sitting.

You can go through the first section, spend ten minutes with the first section. Just put in your name and address, date of birth and

and then just, you know, save and exit. And then the next day go back in, do another section so you don't have to do it all at once.

Yeah. But it's, you know, it's relatively straightforward in second year and third year, it's just a reapplication for your student funding.

So you'll get presented with the previous year's application. You'll be asked if there's any significant changes. If you say no, then you're funding application is done.

So first year is a big one. Second and third year not so much. But always apply as soon as you can.

Because there's so much information out there and you can apply early, it's really, really useful to work out a budget plan before you start university.

Doesn't have to be anything, you know, anything too complicated? Two columns. One column has got got your income, one column has got your outgoings.

Take one figure from the other and just see what that looks like for you. Budgets are very, you know, are very personal things.

They're very specific to the individual. So have a look, see what you've got coming in. You know, what you've got coming out.

So just have a look at a budget just so you've got no unpleasant surprises or unnecessary surprises when you enrol at university.

And then you start to, you know, to start to, you know, start to pay for things based on your income.

Open a student bank account, if for no other reason than just see what they will offer you.

As any as any incentives, any freebies when you open that account, if you happy with you with your current bank, fantastic.

Have a chat with them about what what they can offer you as a student, because they will all want you to put your student

funding into their accounts, you know, for the 3 or 4 years whilst you're at university. So it's worth the conversation.

And see what works for you. See what works for you.

Most importantly, we we always say, don't panic, you know?

You know, don't don't be overwhelmed. There is a lot of information out there. You'll be going through your UCAS application.

You're still doing your your studies at the minute. You'll have exams going on. You know, you might have certain reservations or certain concerns about, you know, leaving home and coming to university. Your parents may be feeling the same,

there's a lot to think about, a lot to go through. But from a student funding point of view, just kind of narrow it down to two.

What it really is, is single point of application. It'll ask you a lot of questions. So just answer those questions. And when you get to the end of the questions, the funding will be done and it will be in place for when you start university in September. So, you know, be clear on what you can borrow.

Make sure that you're, you know, you're accessing all available income. Make sure that, you know, at the end of the day, what the repayments are going to look like for you. And make sure that you're comfortable with all of that. So just just make sure there's like I said, there's a lot of information out there. And when you're at university, you can come and talk to someone about me if you're going to, you know, you know, know, like me, if you've got any concerns about, you know, what you've applied for and what it means and what you're receiving.

So any, any doubts, any questions, just come and talk to us or someone you know, like our team at the University.

Okay. So yeah. So if you want to get in touch with us, we are student money advisors. So with student money, advice team within the student life team in student services, we have a nice, nice, simple email address of smart@derby.ac.uk.

So contact us. After this event, you know, with any questions that you've got, you don't have to be coming here to ask us a question.

So, you know, if it's pre-entry if you just got any questions about, you know, about the information tonight, or if you get a couple of months down the line and think,

I remember going to that webinar, but I really can't remember what year what was said. Drop us a line, drop us an email.

We've got loads of information that that exists that we can send you more than happy to send you a copy of,

of any of our open day presentations, our funding presentations, anything you want. Or if you're coming to an open day to see us, you know, chances are I will be we'll be presenting, you know, you know, a funding presentation at those events. So again, come and talk to us. Come and see what you know, what we can. You know what we can let you know. And in the next slide, I believe, isn't it the information about events that we've got, up and coming at the university. So, this Saturday, 14th of December, we've got, an open house. So just a nice, relaxed open doors. Just come in, have a look around, you know, see, see what the university is

like. Have a relaxed tour of the campus, have a look around the accommodation. So just a nice, you know, you know, if you want to pop in, pop in. It's just an open house. So doors are open, and you're very welcome.

11th of January. We've got an Open Day, so it's a more, a more in depth event. And you can, you can book online. There's a QR code on the screen. Now that you can, you can zap and it will take you straight to the booking or you can have a look on the university website, just about the Open Days. The Open Days, loads of information, loads of people from various, you know, academic areas and support areas. So ourselves from student services will be there, all of their areas of admissions and accommodation and all the academic areas will be there. You can have a look at the you can have a look at the campus.

You can have a look at accommodation. There's no in the people that you can talk to. Lots of people with a lot of information and a lot of expertise. So, you know, any questions that you may have academically? From a support point of view, from accommodation, there will be lots of people at these events who you can talk to.

So again, book one next one 11th of January. Highly recommend that you come to, I certainly enjoy working the events.

A lot of my colleagues that I know we all enjoy working the events is great opportunity for us to meet,

you know, meet our future students and be able to have a chat with students and parents about about what's going on and what supports, available.

Okay. And that's all for me. That's all for me. So I think I'm going to pass back to Charlotte and hopefully we'll have some,

some questions that hopefully, we'll be able to answer for you.

Charlotte:

Thank you, Rob, for a fantastic presentation.

I know that sometimes with student finance, they can feel like a lot of information all at once, but it's really nice to hear

that we have lots of support available at the university. So we're going to move on to the Q&A now, and we've got a few questions.

Some of them you might have answered throughout the presentation, but I want to ask them anyway, just so that everyone is confident with the answers that they've received.

So the first one is for private funding, such as their parents paying for tuition fees. And will that be done in a one off payment, or can it be paid in instalments as well?

Rob:

No. Normally the the payments are are taken in five monthly instalments. So as far as I'm aware they start in October,

October, November, December, January, February. So you know split into into five instalments are currently based on £9,250, it's five instalments of £1,850.

The fees are obviously going up to £9,535. So divide that by five. And those. Yeah. And there's your monthly payment over five months.

It's not that - the payments are never set in stone. If you want to pay over an extended period during the academic year, it's just a conversation with the, with the income team in the finance office. So just have a chat. Have a chat with them, again, if you want.

If you can't find their details on the university website, you're always welcome to email us at smart@derby.ac.uk And we can we can signpost you or we can send any, any questions on to them.

But but absolutely normally but yeah if the worry is that it's, it's the full £9,500 pounds at the point of entry or the point of moments.

Absolutely not. There's no payment requirement at the point of enrolment. So you enrol in September. And there's no required payment until at least October. And then it's a standard payment plan of five months, but that can be extended depending on circumstances. So yeah, hopefully that answers that question.

Charlotte:

Perfect. Thank you Rob. Another question is, do you get student funding for every year for an integrated masters?

Rob:

Yes. So integrated Masters, is essentially a three year undergraduate degree with a fourth year of of masters degree of postgraduate study. And although it's postgraduate study because it's an integrated masters is funded as four years of undergraduate of undergraduate funding. So you'd receive the full tuition fee, loan and maintenance loan and any other support in year one, year two, year three, which is the undergraduate, and in year four, which is the integrated postgraduate year.

So I suppose simple answer is yes, it's a four year course. This four years of of that funding. Yep.

Charlotte:

Thank you. Someone has asked how do I apply for the nursing and allied health healthcare grants?

Rob:

Yeah. Okay. So yeah, like we said it's it's direct to the NHS. So it's the only bit that isn't, funded by student financing. And so it's not it's not that application. So it's the NHS directly. So the NHS Learning Support Fund. So if you're any kind of internet search on NHS Learning Support Fund or you can abbreviate it NHS LSF, it will take you straight to the to the application point. There's information about it, but you won't be able to apply until it's normally around July because there's no income assessment.

There's there's very little for the NHS to assess. They just need to know who you are, what course you're studying.

And they normally ask you for evidence that you're eligible for for student funding because that's one of the eligibility criteria

you've got to be eligible for, for student funding from Student Finance England to be eligible for the NHS support. It's just, it's just a basic eligibility. Requirements. So you apply for that. So you tell them who you are, what course you're doing. And here's evidence of my student funding that provisionally, you know, approves your, you know, your funding from the NHS, what triggers the the funding. So the student financing then what triggers your maintenance loan and tuition for your loan? Is your enrolments at university with the NHS support.

What triggers it is again, it's a similar thing. The university will notify the NHS that you're active on the course

and that turns your your funding to live. From a payment point of view. Your maintenance loan is paid, like we said, September, January and April. The NHS payments are slightly staggered, so they're normally paid in November, February and like May, June time. So that they're paid, you know, kind of in-between the, the student loan payments. Which is good in a way, because you it's better for budgeting purposes. But again, like with SFA, you will get a payment schedule from the NHS telling you exactly what you're getting and when you're getting it. So a very simple application. But you know, don't really look for it until June, July time.

Charlotte:

Thank you.

Someone has asked, do you offer any sports scholarships?

Rob:

Yeah, there are sports scholarships available at the university is not anything that I deal with. But if you have a look on the university website, and you can type in the word scholarships, I think, if you look at Team Derby or any of the any of the sports sites or any of the

information on the university website, you will you will find that there. So I suppose if you go to the site and just do a search on Team Derby or sport scholarships, then then it's all there. It's all there.

Charlotte:

Thank you.

Someone has asked just for clarification around how the maintenance loans are distributed throughout the year.

Rob:

Yep, yep. So it's three instalments over the year. So if you take your full amount equates to 100% of your maintenance loan,

the percentages, because they can never do a full 33.33 recurring split.

So it's paid 34% in the first payment, and then it's 33%.

So you get 34% in September, 33 in January, 33 in April. But, you know, for for the sake of,

you know, a few pounds either way, just chop it into three. So if you're if you're maintenance loan is is £9,000 pounds and you'll get

£3,000 pounds in September, £3,000 pounds in January and £3,000 pounds in April. So. and again that that kind of sits with you know, your accommodation.

So if you're living in halls, your halls payments will kind of be due shortly after each of each of your maintenance loan payments.

So again, if there's any concerns about paying you, treat your tuition fees upfront. If there's any concerns about paying your hall's fees up front, the university will never ask you to pay for your accommodation until your student funding is being received, so they won't ask you to pay in September, you know, on the day of enrolment. If they know that you're not going to get your funding until, you know, until, you know, middle or the end of September.

So don't be concerned about that.

Charlotte:

Thank you. Someone has said, how will they be supported if they are looking at other accommodation in their second or third year?

Rob:

So seeing what they mean that they are first year student to go into university and accommodation in the first year, then they go through our own payment plans and and what support is there if they decide to move, into other accommodation in their second and third year? What was in what university accommodation or private rented accommodation? I'm going to assume private rented. Okay. So that's not really justified. So wherever you live, whether it's in university accommodation or in private rented accommodation, or then you shouldn't funding it. It's not it's not dependent on where you live. Obviously there are the two bands if you're living at home or away from home, and those bands differ because of the the anticipated difference in those costs. But you maintenance loan is not specifically, you know, it's not reliant on you living in university halls. If you live in university halls or if you live in private rented accommodation, you will receive the same amount of maintenance loan based on your household income. So in your first year, you may be in halls, and your house, your maintenance loan arrives in your, in your account, and you will use that money to pay the university because you're in university halls.

If in the second year you move into private rented accommodation, the only difference will be your maintenance loan

will land in your bank account exactly the same as it did in your first year. It's just that rather than pay it to the university for your halls,

you'll be paying it to a letting agent or to a landlord for your private rented accommodation. So it doesn't matter where you're living, whether you're in private rented, or whether you're in university halls, you're maintenance loan. It's not dependent on on that you'll still receive the money. And then when it's in your bank account, it's down to you. Which is why we talk about the importance of budgeting. It's down to you to make sure that that money gets paid to the, you know, to the to the right place at the right time. Hopefully that answers that question.

Charlotte:

Perfect.

Thank you. We've had a couple of questions that are kind of around similar things. So I'm going to try and merge them into one okay.

And so if you could just reiterate just for a final confirmation,

where they can apply for the maintenance and tuition fee loans, is it the same application and when the deadline is okay.

Rob:

Perfect. So it's a single point of application through Student Finance England. So it's through Gov.uk.

So through the government website. So you can navigate, you know, step by step Gov.uk education and learning, student finance.

Once you've clicked in there it will have a button that will say apply here. The student finance will be a big green button that says apply here.

If you click on it today, then you'll only be able to apply for funding for the current academic year 24/25.

We anticipate that the application for 25/26 will go live on the 1st of March. That's the date that we've been given.

Sometimes they're a couple of weeks later. Depends on how the systems are working. But from the 1st of March, that's when we expect it to go live.

So if all if all is well 1st of March going to go for that UK Education and Learning student Finance apply here and it will take you to the application for 2025/26. At that point, you'll still see the application for 24/25, because students can still apply for the current academic year based on the fact that you can apply for nine months after the start of the course. But what you will be looking at is on looking for 25/26. So that's when you click on it will ask you to create an account, and then it will ask you lots and lots of questions. Like I've said, it's a single point of application. 

So it will ask you It will say to you do you want apply for a tuition free loan? Yes please. Do you want apply for maintenance loan?

Yes. Then it will ask you if you want to apply for the, you know, for the higher rate. And what that means is that it will it will take you through the means tested process. So if you say yes to that, that's when it will ask you about sponsor. So parents so you nominate you you know you know name and email address.

Parents will get an email from student finance England to provide their information. So it's just a single point of application, just one application.

You don't have to go looking around for the multiple areas. It's just it's just the one. So it'll open 1st of March.

As far as we know, the deadline the long deadline will be you know, will be May 2026. But don't don't wait until then to apply, obviously, because you won't have any funding in place that the deadline where they guarantee you your funding will be in place

for September is is normally the last day of May. So if you apply by the last day of May, it just gives them a long, long time.

The earlier you apply, the quicker it gets done. If you apply in March, you'll probably take 3 or 4 weeks to do your application.

The longer you go along the process, the more people are applying for student funding and the more people apply for student funding, the longer it takes them.

So as long as you apply at the first three months of the application. So March, April, May gives them loads of time to assess your application before September. If you were to apply in August, then the following several million people in the queue before you.

If you apply in August, it might take a 10-12 weeks to get your funding application through.

So if you apply in August, you may not get your funding through until October. So apply as early as you can. Apply as early as you can is always the the key message there.

Charlotte:
Thank you.
I think we've got about five, ten minutes left and we've got a couple questions left. So I think you'll be able to get through them.
Someone has asked, how do I apply for a bursary and they've not specified which bursary.
So just in general.

 

Rob:
Okay. Most universities will have some kind of bursary. So sometimes it'll be called a bursary, sometimes it'll be a scholarship.
It's really important that the you are mindful of these and you're looking at what's available. Are individual universities.
So have a look where you're looking, see what's available sometimes they're automatically assessed, sometimes they're application based.
Sometimes they're based on household income. Sometimes they're based on academic achievements. So it depends on the university and what and what they're offering at the moment in the current academic year here we've got the university bursary, which is a bursary of up to £1,000 pounds and is assessed based on household income.
If your household income is under £25,000 pounds, you get £1,000 pound bursary. If it's between £25,000 and £36,000, you get a £600 pounds bursary. If it's over, the £36,000 pound threshold, he won't get a bursary. Important thing to note about our university bursary at the moment and receiving, you know, it will extend into 25/25 as well. It's that it's automatically assessed so you don't have to apply for it.

How it works is that you apply to student financing. Then for your student funding, they assess your student funding and your household income at the point of enrolments. They share that household income and household income information
with the university based on, you know, consents that are set up with, you know, with parents or sponsors to share that information.
So we shared with the university, and the university uses that income information to assess you for a bursary. Sorry.
If you're eligible for a bursary, you will receive a bursary. So that's how it works here.

Again, if you go on the university website, type in the word bursary you will take. It's all the information about the university bursary.
But again just be mindful if you're looking at other universities, have a look at what they've got available there.

If there's an application based one and you've had a look at it and you're going to be eligible, just make sure that you apply or you don't want to ever do is have a bursary that you're eligible for, but you didn't apply for it because that's something that you may lose out on. And there may be a deadline date for the application.

And if you go beyond that date, you won't be able to go back and and claim that funding. So have a look what's out there,
make sure you know what's available to you and make sure you're receiving everything that you're entitled to. But just be reassured that the one of the university that's available and it's all them on the website. The minute I have a look at it, it's automatically assessed.

So if you're eligible, you'll get it. If you're not eligible, then then you won't have missed out.

 

Charlotte:
Thank you. We've got another question. Going back to what you said about the natural parent, the income assessed, someone has said that they live with their parents, who are separated on a 50:50 split. So who would they put down in their application?

 

Rob:
Okay. And as part of the application, it's it's entirely at the discretion of the student to nominate, to nominate their sponsor. So it's a 50:50 split. It's entirely, entirely up to the student.
The, the terminology that SFE use is they they put it down to the natural parent student normally lives with.
So if there is a parent then that's the natural parent the student normally lives with. So that normally kind of, you know, drives its own its own, you know, its own conclusion. If it's a 50:50 split, then it's entirely up to the student to nominate their sponsor or sponsor. So,
they will ask you the question, give us the details of your sponsor, and it's entirely up to the student. Now, common sense would would dictate that you nominate the sponsor with the lowest household income. That's that's what would make sense. If you've got one parent, only £60,000 pounds, one parent earning £25,000 pounds, you know, the sensible, you know, you know, realistic option would be to nominate the sponsor with the lowest income. Therefore you would receive, you know, the you know, the higher rate of of the maintenance loan. But it's entirely down to you.

You know, as the students applying for your student funding entirely at your discretion, which of your parents you you nominate as your sponsor. So that decision is is yours and yours alone.

 

Charlotte:
Perfect. Thank you. And I think that wraps up all of our questions. But like Rob said earlier, if you have any special questions
or you think for any questions later on or even in a few months time, you can contact him by emailing Smart@derby.ac.uk.

Or you can come to one of our upcoming Open Days and speak to the team directly. If you prefer to have a face to face conversation.
Thank you everyone for your questions. That concludes today's webinar. And we hope you'll all have a good evening.
Thank you, Rob.