Going to uni next year? Join the student finance mailing list so you know when it's time to apply for funds

The Student Loans Company (SLC) is asking full-time undergraduates to start planning their student finance for the 2022/23 academic year. It says you should apply as early as possible, even if you don't have a confirmed place on your course – as this helps to ensure that your funding is in place at the start of term.

For key student finance need-to-knows, including what you could get and how it's paid back, see our Student loans mythbusting guide.

How to stay up to date with student finance across the UK

Here's how to make sure you don't miss any important deadlines, depending on where in the UK you normally live (not where you'll be studying):

• In England, you can sign up to the Student Finance England mailing list to be one of the first to know when the application service opens.

• In Wales, you can sign up to the Student Finance Wales mailing list to get an alert.

• In Scotland, you can see a list of key dates on the Student Information Scotland website – be sure to add these to your diary.

• In Northern Ireland, you can see when applications open on the Student Finance NI homepage. For the 2021/22 academic year, full-time undergraduate applications opened on 11 March 2021 – so diarise to check the page in March 2022.

What does SLC say?

SLC executive director of operations Chris Larmer said: "With the UCAS deadline approaching at the end of January, we know that many prospective students will be thinking about university or college choices. It's important that they start thinking about their finances too and by signing up they will receive a prompt to help them start their student finance journey."