Eligible undergraduate students on university-based nursing, midwifery and most allied health profession pre-registration courses (courses which lead to registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council or Health and Care Professions Council) have access to the standard student support package of tuition fee loans and support for living costs through an NHS learning support fund.
Students studying the nursing, midwifery and allied health subjects receive a non-repayable and non-means tested (universal) training grant of at least £5,000 a year, in addition to existing mainstream student support. This is called the NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF).
There is additional funding available to attract students to the highest-priority subjects based on the Government’s assessment of vulnerability and workforce priorities. Additional funding is also available for childcare and to support regional vulnerabilities. Total additional funding could come to as much as £3,000 per year for some students.
NHS Business Services Authority administer the fund and publish full guidance annually.
This financial support is intended to provide additional funding and not to replace the maintenance loan completely. We would expect most students to access both the non-repayable grant and the maintenance loan to help finance their studies.
The Training Grant is a non-means-tested grant of £5,000 each academic year for eligible students (see list below). On top of the Training Grant, you can get the Specialist Subject Payment (SSP) which is an extra £1,000 per academic year if you’re studying one of those courses marked below with an asterisk:
Student loans cover tuition fee costs and contribute towards your living expenses.
The tuition fee is transferred directly to your university so you won’t have to get involved in that process.
The student maintenance loan is means tested. This means the amount you can borrow to support your living costs will depend on your individual circumstances (your household income, whether or not you will live at home while studying and whether or not you live in London). The day to day support for living costs is significantly higher for most students under the main student funding system than it was in the past for students receiving an NHS Bursary. Details of these loans are available on the Government’s student support website.
Since September 2020, eligible new and continuing students with childcare responsibilities receive a £2,000 Parental Support payment from the NHS Business Services Authority. This can be in addition to other non-repayable support through the mainstream student funding system to help support childcare costs and a non-repayable parents learning allowance is also available.
Students on healthcare courses spend a great deal of time on clinical placements away from the university. In some cases, this means that students need to travel longer distances than usual or even stay away from home for a period of time. Students on these courses are eligible for reimbursement of additional travel and accommodation costs over normal daily travel costs. This Travel and Dual Accommodation Expenses (TDAE) support is part of the Learning Support Fund administered through the NHS Business Services Authority.
In some cases students may be eligible for certain additional support through the Learning Support Fund, including up to £3,000 for exceptional hardship.
Students who are obliged to incur essential additional expenditure while undertaking a course of higher education as a result of a disability will qualify for disabled students’ allowances.
The student support system provides additional, non-repayable grants, to students with adult dependants.
Nearly all universities offer extra money in the form of scholarships or bursaries to help with the cost of going to university. These are in addition to student loans and you don’t have to pay them back. They might take the form of cash or discounted services or accommodation. Some universities also offer fee waivers that will reduce the loan that you have to pay back.
Lots of people worry about whether university is affordable but it is important to know that you don’t have to pay money upfront and that the amount you eventually pay back will depend on how much you earn. In this respect loan repayment is more like a tax than a commercial or payday loan.
Loan repayments are income dependent. You will repay 9% of any income you earn each year above £25,000. If your income drops below £25,000 or you take a break from work you will not pay back the loan again until you are again earning over the threshold amount. Many newly qualified professionals in the NHS earn a little under £25,000 a year so you may not start paying back your loan until sometime after you qualify.
Loans are paid back automatically out of your pay packet so you don’t have to worry about missing repayments.
The loan gets written off 30 years after you become eligible to repay so if you are a mature student there is a fair chance that you will never have to repay the full amount.
Most students cannot take out a second student loan but the Government has made a special exception for healthcare students. If you already have a degree you can take out a second loan on the same terms as other students.
The same basic repayment arrangement will apply even when you have two loans subject to ‘Plan 2 repayment terms’ (post-2012 loans) so you will not pay back more than 9% of your income over £25,000. The repayment amount is simply split proportionally according to the outstanding balance of each loan. Again, any remaining loan amount will be written off after 30 years.
If your first student loan was a ‘Plan 1’ loan (pre-2012) the amount you will repay to each plan will depend on your income and the terms and conditions of each loan.
If you already have a degree you may be able to qualify as a healthcare professional through a fast-track postgraduate degree route.
From the 2022 to 2023 academic year, students studying Paramedicine can also have their eligibility assessed on case-by-case basis if they are ineligible for tuition fees and maintenance support because they have an equivalent or lower qualification. Students will be eligible for NHS Learning Support Fund provisions from the start of their 2022-23 academic year.
There are a few integrated Masters courses in healthcare subjects. Students on these courses have access to funding for the full four years of the course.
If you already have a relevant qualification or substantial experience you may be able to have this recognised through Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL). This could shorten the time taken to qualify and you would still be able to access standard student support. Universities have their own arrangements for APEL so do ask the universities you are interested in.
If you start your programme in year two or above because of your previous experience, you will still qualify for a student loan.
There are lots of myths about student loans and people understandably worry about whether university is affordable. Make sure you get independent advice and don’t be put off before you’ve investigated the way the system works.