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Student Loans
| Student loans are government sponsored loans administered by the Student Loans Company (SLC). You may come across four 'varieties' of student loan during your time as a medical student depending on which country in the UK you live or study:
Student Loan for fees
- Fee Loan lets you delay paying your tuition fees until after you've graduated
- Non income-assessed
- Fee Loan is paid directly to your University
Student Loan for maintenance (first four years)
- Loan is made up of a non income-assessed part and an income-assessed part
- Proportion of the loan which is assessed and not assessed can vary according to:
- when you started your course
- which country of the UK you live in
- where you are studying
- Are three different rates of loan depending on whether you live at home, away from home and study in London or away from home and study elsewhere in the country
- Additional weekly loan payments if your course is longer than the standard year
- Exact details of amounts can be found on the related website links
Student Loan for maintenance (fifth year onwards)
- Loan is non income-assessed
- Set annual amount – extra weeks are not payable
- Exact details of the amounts can be found on the related website links
(There is a College Fee Loan if you are studying for a second degree in medicine at Oxford or Cambridge Universities. See the related link) | |
| If you have to borrow money you should always take out the maximum student loan that you can as you will not find any other loans provided on such favourable terms. |
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Pros
- Low interest rate - rate of inflation(RPI in March) or the highest base rate of a number of major banks + 1% whichever is lower.
- Affordable repayments - linked to your income so you pay 9% of your gross income over £15,000. For example if you earn £25,000 you will pay £75 a month
- Easy repayments deducted directly from your salary by your employer, like income tax. (Remember if you go abroad to work you must tell the SLC so that arrangements can be made to collect repayments directly from you)
- If you are earning less than £15,000 you don’t make any repayments
- Under certain circumstances, such as long term disability, your loans will be written off and you won’t have to repay them.
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The Government website provides information about student loans for all UK and EU students.You can find a copy of 'Student Loans, A Guide to Terms and Conditions 10/11' on this site under 'Forms and Guides'. This is relevant to students from all the UK countries. There is also a specific guide for EU students 'Student Loans: A Guide for EU Students 2010/11' on the site. | |
| If you took out your loan for a course that started before 1998 you will have a different type of loan. You can defer repayment of your loan each year if you earn under a certain amount (£2,254 per month in 10/11). But you must contact the SLC about this and complete a deferment form. |
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Cons
- Eligibility for maintenance loans is based on the residence requirements for UK student support.
- Fee loans are not available for second degrees (but maintenance loans are)
- Can take a long time to repay although you can choose to make extra payments to pay back your loans faster
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 |  | If you are EU student repaying a tuition fee loan or a UK student working abroad the SLC will work out your monthly repayment schedule using the same principles as for those who stay in the UK. You will repay nine per cent of your earnings over the repayment threshold but, to take account of differences in living costs, the repayment threshold may not be the same as in the UK. |  | | | | |
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