English Students

The arrangements for student funding change each year but this page will help to give you a rough idea of how much money you can expect to get if you are an English student studying medicine in the UK.

Tuition Fees

As a general rule, medical students do not have to pay any tuition fees until the end of their course. In years 1-4, you can apply for a tuition fee loan, which covers the cost of your tuition fees. In year 5 (and 6 for 6 year courses), the NHS will pay your tuition fees for you, and you do not need to repay them.

Tuition fees are different for medical schools depending on where you originate from . The table below shows how much a student would be expected to pay if they were studying in an English medical school.

Maintenance loan

The maintenance loan (often referred to as the student loan) is available to cover living costs whilst at university. This loan is partly means-tested. Everyone who is eligible to apply gets at least three quarters of the full loan. The last quarter of the loan is dependent upon your household income.

Your household income is normally based on your parents income but older students may qualify as ‘independent’, in which case your own income or that of your spouse or partner will be used. The criteria for being ‘independent’ is explained below.

Please visit https://www.gov.uk/student-finance/loans-and-grants for further details.

Maintenance Grant

The Maintenance Grant is a non-repayable grant that is only offered to students with a lower household income.

The amount you receive can range from £3387 to £50, depending on where you live and your household income. If your income is below £25000, you will probably get the maximum student loan. If it is below £42,000, you are guaranteed to receive a maintenance loan.

It is our understanding that when receiving an NHS grant, Maintenance Loan/Grants allowance will be reduced.

University Bursaries

Some Universities are willing to provide bursaries to promising potential students from low-income families. It is best to contact the universities directly.

NHS Bursary - for years 5 and 6

From the 5th year onwards, medical students are entitled to an NHS bursary, which they don’t have to pay back. This is separate from the NHS funding for tuition fees described above. Your tuition fees will be paid regardless of the amount of bursary you are entitled to.

It important to understand that you will automatically be entitled to less student loan if you are eligible to apply for an NHS Bursary. In effect, this means that students in the 5th or 6th year of their degree can only get about half the standard Maintenance Loan. However, this part of the Maintenance Loan is not means tested, which means that all students will get the same amount of Maintenance Loan in these years.

The bursary is entirely means tested so if your household income is above a certain level, you probably won’t get any bursary. This means that you may actually have less money to live on in the 5th or 6th year of your course, as your Maintenance Loan will be reduced.

Students starting from September 2012 will also have access to a non-means tested grant of £1,000 as part of their NHS Bursary award.

How much will I get?

It’s better to tailor the online calculators to your family income for an accurate decision. But here’s an example of a low-income family, versus a high-income family.

Low Income - Parents earning minimum wage (below £25,000 a year), living away from home
Maintenance Loan - £3,823
Maintenance Bursary - £3,354
Total living allowance - £7,177

High income - Parents earning top tier wages (above £42,620) , living away from home
Maintenance Loan - £5,500
Maintenance Bursary - £0
Total living allowance - £5,500

Am I an ‘independent’ student?

Most university students receive funding based on how much their parents earn. However, some people are classed as ‘independent’, in which case the amount they receive is based on their own personal income or their partner’s income. To be classed as an independent student, you must fulfill one of the following criteria:

	You have children (or dependents) under 18 years of age.
	You will be over 25 on the first day of the first academic year of your course.
	You have been married or have entered a civil partnership.
	You have no living parents, you are estranged from your parents or they cannot be traced.
	You have supported yourself for 3 years (although time at university does not count).
	You were looked after by a local authority for 3 months or more after age 16.

The criteria for the maintenance loans and the NHS bursaries are virtually the same.

What if I’m an English student studying in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales?

This doesn’t matter. If you are classed as an English student, you get the same funding wherever you study in the UK. The only difference may be the tuition fees you pay. You get a tuition fee loan to cover these costs wherever you study in the UK.

Is there any other funding?

In short, yes. There is help available if you have children or dependants, if you are disabled or if you are from a lower income family. You can also get commercial bank loans or funding from charities or scholarship funds.

Further information

All this information comes from the Student Finance Calculator and the NHS Bursary site. We have made every attempt to ensure that this information is accurate but you should always check the information yourself. There are three key documents from these sites that give details about student finance arrangements and eligibility criteria: