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Postgraduate student loans
Master's students can now get £12,000+ graduate loans from the Student Loans Company
Updated 1 September 2023
Master's students can apply for Student Loans Company loans of up to £12,167 to pay for their courses, which they'll only need to repay if they earn enough once the course ends. Here we explain how these loans work, including who can get them, how expensive they are, how you repay and whether or not they're worth it.
This guide was originally written by Martin Lewis and is now updated by the MSE Money Team.
For those who've started their undergraduate studies since 2012, the student loan system will be pretty familiar. For those who went before that, there are some changes. For more information on how undergraduate loans work, see my Student Loan Mythbusters guide.
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You have to be under 60, living in England and doing your first master's to be eligible
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Applications are now open and you can apply on the Student Loans Company website or by post by downloading an application form.
If you've already applied for student finance in the past you can use your existing login details. If not, you'll need to register. You have up to nine months from the start of the academic year to apply (or nine months after the start of the second year if it's a two-year course).
And there are other eligibility criteria too...
- You must be under 60: If you're 60 or over on the first day the academic year starts, you can't get the loan.
- This must be your first master's degree: If you already have a master's degree or a higher qualification (even if it was not from a UK university) you won't be eligible for the loan.- It must be a full master's course: This technically means a level 7 qualification worth 180 credits. Postgrad diplomas therefore don't count as these are usually 120 or 60 credits.
- It needs to be a maximum four-year course: Any master's course including taught, research, distance learning and professional, in any subject in an eligible UK university (one that has power to give degrees), is fine.
It should be a one or two-year postgraduate master's course, or if you're studying part-time, the course must be at least 50% intensity (ie, a maximum four-year course). You can also get the loan if you're on a three-year part-time course even if there is no full-time equivalent.- This must be your only funding: If you're able to apply for a bursary instead, eg a healthcare bursary from the NHS, a social work bursary from the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) or a bursary from Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS), you won't be eligible for the postgraduate loan.
- You must be a UK national living in England: If you’re a UK or EU national, you must be living in England, and have lived in the UK for at least three years before your course starts, to qualify. You may also be able to get the loan if you’re an EU national, you’ve been living in the EU for the past three years, you’ll live in England when your course starts and you’ll be studying at an English university or college.
The situation for those in other areas of the UK varies. We're focusing mainly on England in this guide, so make sure you research all the T&Cs, eligibility criteria and figures for your area.
Disabled Students' Allowances (DSAs): If you need help with costs you have to pay in relation to your course as the result of a disability, long-term health condition, mental health condition or specific learning difficulty, then DSAs can help you.
You don't need to pay them back. The amounts you can get differ between regions - here's what you may be eligible for in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
If you're a postgraduate pre-registration healthcare student: You are eligible to apply for a second undergraduate loan instead of the Master's loan if you are enrolled on one of the qualifying courses. You'll repay both your loans at a consolidated rate of 9% above the income threshold.
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You're allowed to borrow up to £12,167 for your master's, even if your course costs less
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How much you can get depends on when you started your course:
Starting on or after 1 Aug 2023: You can get up to £12,167.
Starting on or after 1 Aug 2022: You can get up to £11,836.
Starting on or after 1 Aug 2021: You can get up to £11,570.
Starting on or after 1 Aug 2020: You can get up to £11,222.
You can get the maximum loan amount regardless of whether your course is over one year, or a number. If your course lasts longer than a year, the loan will be divided equally across each year.
If your course costs more than the maximum loan amount, you'll have to fund the rest yourself.
You can choose how much you want to borrow. It's not dependent on your income or the course fees. If you don't want a loan then you don't have to take it.
KEY TIP: You don't have to decide at the start – you can increase your borrowing up to the maximum until a month before your course ends.
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The Student Loans Company will pay the loan directly to you, not to the university
Unlike undergraduate loans where the Student Loans Company (SLC) pays the university the tuition fees directly, for master's courses the money is paid to you. If you change course during the year to one that is not eligible for the loan, or you leave during the year, you won't receive the final loan payments. You will still need to repay what you have received.
If your course starts on or after 1 August 2023, your loan is divided equally across each year of your course, so if you apply for the full £12,167 and you're on a two-year course, you'll get £6,083 per year.
The timing of the payments varies depending on course length:
- One-year master's: It's paid in three instalments. You'll get the first payment when the university confirms your placement to the SLC, and you'll get the other two payments during the year.- Two-year+ master's: The money will be divided equally across each year of your course, so if you apply for the full £12,167 and you're on a two-year course, you'll get £6,083 per year. It will be paid in three instalments every year.
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You're eligible to start repaying in the April after graduation
Just like for undergraduate loans, you're eligible to start repaying in the April following the end of the course, as long as you're earning above the salary threshold. So if you finish in June, it'll be the following April.
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You repay 6% of everything earned above £21,000 – earn less and you don't repay
![1272613333]( "1272613333")
Once you're eligible to start repaying, you will only actually repay if you're earning above £1,750 a month or £403 per week – equivalent to £21,000 a year. In Scotland, you need to be earning over £25,375 a year, and in Northern Ireland, it's just £22,015 a year.
The amount you repay for postgraduate loans is 6% (9% in Scotland and Northern Ireland) of everything above that, this is lower than undergraduate loans which are set at 9% above the threshold.
Even if you've started repaying the loan in a year, but then lose your job or take a pay cut, your repayments drop accordingly.
Of course if you never earn over the threshold, you'd never need to repay a penny.KEY TIP: Earnings doesn't just mean money from employment or self-employment, in some cases income from investment and savings count too, if you have that, read these links...
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You repay it through the payroll, and there are no debt collectors
All student loans since 1998 have been repaid through the payroll just like income tax. What this means is that once you're working, your employer will deduct the repayments from your salary before you get it. So the amount you receive in your bank account each month already has it removed.
If you're self-employed you repay the student loan in the same way as you repay income tax. This is done via HM Revenue & Customs's self-assessment scheme. At the end of each tax year, you calculate your earnings and the appropriate amount of tax and loan repayments, then send it to HMRC. This also applies if you have additional self-employed earnings on top of employment.
If you're self-employed and fail to pay, the SLC will try to get in touch with you. Ignore that, and it will send debt collectors your way, and you could eventually end up in court. More information is available for graduates on the Student Loans Company website.
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After 30 years, any and all remaining debt is wiped
You stop owing either when you've cleared the debt, or when 30 years (from the April after graduation) have passed, whichever comes first. If you never get a job earning over the threshold, you won't have to repay a penny.
It's one reason those who are relatively near retirement, who don't have a degree and want one, will find doing one very appealing. This is because unless they've a huge pension, they know they'll never have to repay -
If you already have an undergraduate student loan, you'll repay both, but they are kept separate
The reason the amount you repay here at '6% above £21,000' is lower than the '9% above £27,295 for undergraduates is because many master's students will still be repaying their undergraduate loan too. The two loans are paid together, but treated separately. In other words...
They wipe at different times:
If you are repaying both, once one is cleared you stop paying it, but will keep paying the other. Not all undergraduate loans wipe after 30 years, some are sooner, some later (see when will my loan wipe?), but your master's loan is always 30 years.
You repay both loans at the same time:
The total repayment for both loans will depend on which undergraduate loan you have; full info in the Student loan repayment guide.
- If you started your undergraduate degree in or after 2012: You will repay 9% of everything you earn above £27,295 for your undergrad loan, plus 6% of everything above £21,000 for your postgrad loan, so essentially 15% of your eligible income. This means that if you earn £30,000, you will repay roughly £783 a year.
- If you started your undergraduate degree between 1998 and 2012: You will repay 9% of everything above £22,015 currently for your undergraduate loan, plus 6% of everything above £21,000 for your postgrad loan.
- If you started your undergraduate degree between 1991 and 1998: You will repay a pre-agreed fixed amount above £35,092 for your undergraduate loan, plus 6% of everything above £21,000 for your postgrad loan. -
The doctoral student loan can help with up to £28,673 – take that after a master's and you'll repay 6% for both
The Doctoral loan lets you borrow up to £28,673 for your whole course. It's paid directly to you in three equal instalments each year.
Your course: You need to be on a full, stand-alone course starting on or after 1 August 2023, which lasts between three and eight academic years and is provided by a UK based university.
You must be under 60: If you're 60 or over on the first day the academic year starts, you won't be eligible.
You must be living in England. If you're a UK or EU national (or have settled status), you normally live in England and you've lived in the UK for three years before your course starts, you're eligible to apply.
If you're an EU national, you may also be eligible if you're living in England when your course starts, you've lived in the EU for the past three years, and you'll be studying at a university in England.
It's not affected by your income, but beware that it could affect your benefit payments from the DWP.
This must be your only funding: If you're receiving, or in some cases eligible, for other funding (such as an NHS bursary, student finance payments, or a scholarship) you won't qualify.
How much you can borrow depends on when your course started:
- If it starts on or after 1 August 2023 you can get up to £28,673.
- If it starts on or after 1 August 2022 you can get up to £27,892
- If it starts on or after 1 August 2021 you can get up to £27,265
- If it starts on or after 1 August 2020 you can get up to £26,445
You'll repay 6% of everything that you earn above £21,000 (the equivalent of £1,750 per month, or £403 per week). If you already have a Master's loan, you'll make a combined payment of 6% covering both loans.
If you already have an undergraduate student loan, you'll also repay 9% of everything you earn over £27,295 - so if you've got all three loans and earn over this, you'll essentially pay 15% of your income.
There are regional differences:
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Interest will be charged at 7.3%
As soon as you receive the money from the Student Loans Company (SLC) interest will start accruing on the money. The interest rate is usually set at...
3% plus the RPI rate of inflation
Yet this doesn't change on a monthly basis. In practice each year the rate changes in September based on the Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation rate for the prior March.
However, because RPI was so high in March 2022, the Government announced that interest rates would be capped. As a result, the current level of interest on postgraduate student loans in England and Wales is 7.3%.
KEY TIP: Just because interest is charged, doesn't mean you'll pay it. That's because only those who clear the amount they borrowed within 30 years will ever repay the interest and only medium and higher-earners will hit that (see point 12 below).
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Postgrad loans DO NOT go on credit files
![468821369]( "468821369")
When you borrow from a bank for a credit card, loan or mortgage, lenders look at three pieces of information to evaluate whether they'll make money from you – your application form, any previous dealings they've had with you and crucially, the information on your credit reference files (full info: how credit ratings work).
Most normal financial transactions and credit relationships you have are listed on these files – though student loans are not included (with the exception of students who started university before 1998 under the original loans system).
So the only way loan, credit card or mortgage providers know you've got a student loan is if they choose to ask on application forms. They can do this, and it happens, but in general it's only for bigger value transactions such as mortgages.
In many ways though the impact of getting this loan is less about the fact it is borrowing in itself, and far more the reduction of disposable income from the repayments.
So if you're trying to figure out what impact it will have, imagine you'd simply had a pay cut of the amount you'll be repaying for the loan – that's how lenders mainly see it. For more help on how lending works see my free First-Time Buyers' Mortgage Guide and Remortgage Guide. -
You're more likely to repay this loan within the 30 years before it wipes than an undergrad loan
Typical full-time English undergraduate student loans are currently upward of £40,000 once tuition fees and living loans are incorporated. When you do the maths, and add the interest, as repayments are fixed based on earnings, it works out that only very high earners will clear it in the 30 years before the debt wipes. See who'll clear the loan.
The postgraduate master's loan however is for a much smaller amount. And even though there are lower repayments, the maths shows you are more likely to clear this within 30 years. For example, someone with a £10,000 loan, earning a starting salary of £25,000 that rises each year by more than inflation, would clear the loan within 18 years.
This is important to consider, as it means unlike undergraduates where the 'price tag' of what you borrow often bears little relationship to what you repay, with postgraduate loans the two are more closely linked – and you need to add interest on top.
However there are a number of key factors that affect this:- The higher your earnings potential the more likely you are to repay it in full within 30 years.
- The younger you are the more likely you are to repay within 30 years (as those starting later will be eligible to repay in retirement when incomes are likely lower).
- The less you borrow the more likely you are to repay within 30 years.
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You can repay student loans early, but whether you should is a different matter
You have a right to pay off the student loan early – even while you're studying if you chose – or, as is more likely, to make overpayments after study to clear it quicker.
Yet this doesn't mean you should pay off early. While in general I'd always encourage people to repay their debts as quickly as possible, student loans are one of the rare cases where that will be a bad decision for some people. There are two reasons for this...
1) This is a 'better' loan than most commercial loans. The rate here is far cheaper than standard credit cards, loans and some mortgages – so paying those off first is certainly a priority. But just as important is that your repayments here depend on what you earn – great insurance if you lose your job or can't work as you don't have to repay it. Commercial loans don't do that.
Therefore if you're planning future borrowing, such as for a mortgage or car loan, it is worth asking yourself whether you should pay this off, only to then have to borrow back at a higher rate later. Instead you could just stick this in a top savings account where the interest paid will almost cover the student loan interest rate, and then use the cash to get a mortgage later.
2) You may not need to repay all of it. As explained above, some people won't need to repay the whole loan before it wipes. And even if it looks like you will, a change of circumstances could affect that. So by overpaying unnecessarily you could simply be paying money that you would never have needed to repay. -
Is it worth borrowing the maximum loan even if you don't need it?
![1345410158]( "1345410158")
This is a relatively cheap form of finance, compared with commercial loans, and the fact you only repay in proportion to your income and it wipes after 30 years is hugely beneficial. So if you don't need the cash (and we ignore the morality of using taxpayer money to make a gain) the question of whether it could still be worth taking is interesting.
Certainly you're currently unlikely to make much gain from stoozing this cash (where you borrow cheaply to then save at a high rate to make money) as few savings accounts come close to paying more than RPI + 3% interest.
There are however two scenarios where it would be financially worthwhile to take it when you don't need it…
- If you're unlikely to repay the loan in full within the 30 years. For example, if you were aged 59 taking a course, unlikely to ever go back to full-time employment and living off pension earnings of under £21,000, you'd never need to repay this cash, so borrowing more would be a big win – at taxpayers' expense.- If you were likely to need other borrowing in future. In effect what we need to do is assess whether you'd be better off to borrow this now, and keep the cash to use later, instead of taking another form of borrowing later.
For example, if you planned to borrow for a car in future, you'd usually be better off to take this loan to fund your studies and use the cash later to buy the car. This is because student loans have far better terms, and are usually – not always – cheaper (see Cheap Loans).
It's more complex, if you'll want a mortgage in future. The student loan has far better terms than a mortgage – after all unlike a mortgage lose your job and you don't have to repay it. Plus the bigger your mortgage deposit the lower the mortgage interest rate you will get – so taking the student loan and keeping the cash for a deposit looks attractive.
However taking the student loan reduces your disposable monthly income, which will hit affordability criteria, and this can reduce the amount you'll be able to borrow.
As a rule of thumb then, if you've got a decent deposit already saved and will struggle to borrow what you need (if you've less disposable income) – you're probably best not taking the student loan. If not, then maximising the deposit (aim for at least 10%, see the First Time Mortgage Guide) takes priority, so taking the student loan to do that helps (just don't spend it). -
Warning. This is how it works now – sadly it can be changed – even retrospectively
So now you understand it, the obvious question is, "how fixed is all this?"
In theory it shouldn't change, but in practice it can. Parliament is omnicompetent. In other words, it's completely free to make and change rules made in the past. This means there is no 100% guarantee the system will remain unchanged for the 30 years until you're clear. It's worth being aware this is a risk factor.
More so, student finance rules are not enshrined in statute, so can be changed by the Government of the day even without a vote in the House of Commons.
In the past it has always been thought that retrospective changes to the system go against natural justice and it hasn't happened – after all each time a new student finance system has been introduced, it has only applied to new starters.
But that sacred trust was breached in November 2015 – the Government froze the repayment threshold for all those who started in 2012 and beyond. The threshold was meant to increase. This effectively hiked the cost of student loans above what people had thought they would be when they started university. That shouldn't happen. No commercial firm would be allowed to do so.I've campaigned against it both writing to the PM and hiring lawyers to see if it could be challenged, but so far to no avail.
This is a very worrying situation as it means it's difficult to trust the system. Yet unfortunately if you want to get a master's you've no choice.
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