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Student loans
Loans are available to students to help with living costs, e.g. accommodation, food, clothes, travel etc. Interest is charged at the rate of inflation, so the amount the student repays will be equal in value to the amount borrowed. The interest rate is currently 3%.
Help with tuition fees
Students can apply for a loan to cover the exact amount that the university or college charges for a course and the money will be paid directly to the university or college to cover the cost of fees.
Flexible Tuition Fees
The Higher Education Act 2004 gives universities and colleges in England the powers to set their own level of tuition fees, subject to a cap set by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. The 2004 Act also gives responsibility for the tuition fee regime in Welsh Higher Education Institutions to the Welsh Ministers. Institutions in Wales, along with those in England can now charge annual deferred flexible fees different fees for different courses, between £0 and £3,225.
From 2009/10, students normally resident in Wales AND studying at a publicly funded higher education institution in Wales will be entitled to a non-means tested tuition fee grant of up to £1,940 which does not have to be repaid. The tuition fee grant is available irrespective of family income, and is paid directly to the student’s place of study.
Students normally living in Wales but studying elsewhere in the UK will not be entitled to a tuition fee grant. They will be charged fees according to the fee regime of the country in which they study, and set by their institution. However Student Finance Wales will provide a loan to cover these fees.
Additional support
There are further grants available in certain circumstances for full-time students normally living in Wales. Students may be entitled to the following support from the Welsh Assembly Government:
Assembly Learning Grant
New full-time higher education students from lower income households are eligible for a non-repayable maintenance grant - the Assembly Learning Grant - of up to £2,906
The full grant will be available for students with a household income of £18,370 or less; a partial grant will be available for those with a household income of up to £39,793
Continuing students may be eligible to receive a means-tested Higher Education Grant of up to £1,000 and up to an additional £500 Assembly Learning Grant.
Financial Contingency Funds
These are available through universities and colleges. The fund enables the institutions to provide discretionary assistance to students who are experiencing financial difficulties, or who might not otherwise have been able to afford to enter or remain in higher or further education.
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