Student Finance UK 2026: Complete Guide to Loans, Grants and Repayment

Understanding student finance UK is one of the most important things you will do before starting university. The system is more complex than it appears on the surface — and the decisions you make about your funding can affect your finances for decades. This guide covers everything you need to know for 2026: what loans and grants are available, how much you can get, when and how to apply, and what you will actually repay after you graduate.

The good news is this: the UK student finance system is designed so that you never repay more than you can afford. Repayments are income-contingent — they come out of your salary only when you earn above a certain threshold, and only a percentage of what you earn above that threshold. If you never earn enough, you never repay enough to clear the loan — and it is written off after a fixed period. This is fundamentally different from commercial debt, and understanding that distinction removes a lot of the anxiety that students feel about taking on a loan.

Types of Student Finance Support

Student finance in England is administered by Student Finance England (SFE). Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have their own student finance bodies with different amounts and eligibility criteria. This guide focuses primarily on England, with notes on devolved differences where they are significant.

The main types of support available are:

• Tuition Fee Loan: Covers the cost of your university tuition. Paid directly to the university.
• Maintenance Loan: Contributes to your living costs. Paid directly to you in three instalments per year.
• Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA): Non-repayable funding for students with a disability, long-term health condition, mental health condition, or specific learning difference.
• Childcare Grant: Non-repayable funding for students with dependent children in registered childcare.
• Parents’ Learning Allowance: Non-repayable support for students with dependent children.
• University Bursaries and Hardship Funds: Institutional awards from your university, separate from government funding.

Tuition Fee Loan 2026

For the 2025–26 academic year, the maximum tuition fee for a full-time undergraduate course in England is £9,790 per year. The Tuition Fee Loan covers this cost in full for eligible UK students. It is paid directly to your university — you never see or handle this money yourself. It is added to your loan balance and repaid under the income-contingent system after graduation.

Key points about the Tuition Fee Loan:

• Available to all eligible UK students regardless of household income
• Covers up to the maximum annual tuition fee — if your course costs less, the loan is reduced accordingly
• Part-time students can access a proportional tuition fee loan
• Students repeating a year may not be entitled to a further tuition fee loan — check your specific circumstances with SFE

Maintenance Loan 2026: Amounts by Circumstance

The Maintenance Loan amount you receive depends on where you study, whether you live at home or away, and your household income. Higher household income generally means a lower maintenance loan, but all students receive at least a minimum baseline regardless of income.

The Maintenance Loan is means-tested above the minimum. To access the maximum loan, you need to submit household income information (from your parents’ or partner’s tax returns). The assessment is based on the previous tax year’s income.

Grants and Additional Support

Unlike loans, grants do not need to be repaid. The key non-repayable support programmes in 2026 are:

• Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA): Up to £26,291 per year for non-medical personal helpers, specialist equipment, and other disability-related costs. DSA is not means-tested — it is assessed on the basis of need, not income.
• Childcare Grant: Up to 85% of childcare costs (up to £174.22 per week for one child, or £298.69 for two or more) for students with children in registered childcare.
• Parents’ Learning Allowance: Up to £1,963 per year for students with dependent children, means-tested on household income.
• Adult Dependants’ Grant: Up to £3,438 per year for students with an adult financially dependent on them.

Separately, most universities operate hardship funds (also called Access to Learning Funds or Financial Assistance Funds) for students facing exceptional financial difficulty. These are discretionary and vary by institution — contact your university’s student services office for details.

Who Is Eligible for Student Finance?

To receive student finance from Student Finance England, you must:

• Be a UK national or have settled status in the UK (with some exceptions for EU students)
• Be studying an eligible course (most full-time and part-time undergraduate degrees qualify)
• Be studying at an eligible institution (all UK universities and most colleges)
• Not have studied for a degree-level qualification previously (with some exceptions for new subjects or incomplete degrees)

EU students who began studying in the UK before 31 July 2021 and have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme retain eligibility for student finance on broadly the same terms as UK students.

How to Apply for Student Finance

Apply through the Student Finance England portal at gov.uk/student-finance. For full-time undergraduate courses beginning in autumn 2026, applications open on 23 March 2026. Key practical steps:

1. Create a Student Finance account with your Government Gateway credentials.
2. Complete your application — you will need your course details, university, National Insurance number, and passport.
3. If applying for the maximum maintenance loan, your parents or partner will need to submit their income information separately (they receive a separate login link from SFE).
4. Apply as early as possible after the opening date — processing takes several weeks, and late applications risk delayed payments at the start of term.
5. Bring your evidence to your university’s enrolment — a payment cannot be made until you have enrolled and confirmed your study.

For Scottish students, apply to Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS). For Welsh students, apply to Student Finance Wales. For Northern Irish students, apply to Student Finance Northern Ireland. Each system has different loan amounts and eligibility criteria from the England system.

How Student Loan Repayment Works

This is the part most students get wrong — and where understanding the system correctly matters most for making informed decisions.

For Plan 2 loans (most students who started after September 2012 and before January 2027):

• Repayment begins the April after you finish your course and only when your earnings exceed £25,000 per year.
• You repay 9% of income above the £25,000 threshold. On a salary of £30,000, you repay 9% of £5,000 = £450 per year (£37.50 per month).
• Interest is charged at RPI (Retail Price Index) inflation while you study and for a period after graduation, with additional interest for higher earners.
• The loan is written off 30 years after the April you first become liable to repay — regardless of how much remains outstanding.

The critical implication: only high earners with large loans pay back their full balance. Most graduates repay a portion of their loan before it is written off. The loan functions more like a graduate tax on earnings than traditional debt. Voluntary overpayments are possible but rarely make financial sense unless you are confident you will repay the full balance with interest during the repayment window.

Major Changes for 2027 Starters

Students starting courses from 1 January 2027 will move to a new plan (Plan 5) with different terms:

• Repayment threshold: £25,000 per year (same as Plan 2)
• Repayment rate: 9% of income above threshold (same as Plan 2)
• Interest rate: 3.2% while repaying (fixed, lower than Plan 2 for some earners)
• Write-off period: 40 years instead of 30 years — a significant change that means more graduates will repay for longer before write-off

The 40-year repayment window is the most consequential change. Students who would previously have had remaining debt written off at age 51 will now carry it until age 61. For students considering starting a course in late 2026, this makes the distinction between courses starting before and after 1 January 2027 financially significant.

For help planning your university application alongside your finance application, see our UCAS application guide 2026 and our scholarship applications tips to find non-repayable funding that reduces your loan dependency. A full overview of which universities to consider is available in our best universities UK ranking 2026 guide.

Frequently Asked Questions