Student finance explained for parents

What loans are there?

There are two. The Tuition Fee Loan pays the course tuition fees, so nobody has to pay them up front, and the Maintenance Loan is for rent, food, books, travel and other living costs. The amounts change every year, so the government’s student finance pages are the place to look them up rather than any figure quoted secondhand.

This guide is about students from England. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man each have their own process, and a student applies to the one for where they live, whichever part of the UK the university is in.

How does household income affect it?

The Maintenance Loan is means-tested on household income. For a student under 25 who is dependent on their parents, that means the parents’ income (or one parent’s and their partner’s) as well as the student’s own, and the parents confirm their details online as part of the application. A student of 25 or over counts as independent, and so do some younger students, for example those who have supported themselves for three years, are married, were in care before they were 16, or have had no contact with their parents for over a year.

Families who would rather not share their income can skip the assessment, in which case the student gets the Tuition Fee Loan and the lowest rate of Maintenance Loan. The higher the household income, the smaller the Maintenance Loan, so families with higher incomes may find it does not cover rent and food, and make up the difference themselves.

How is it paid back?

Students starting an undergraduate course in England from 1 August 2023 onwards are on what the government calls Plan 5. They repay 9% of their income above a threshold, which the government sets and changes, and nothing in any month their income is below it. Repayment starts at the earliest in the April after they leave the course, and whatever is left is written off 40 years after the April they were first due to repay.

So what a graduate pays each month depends on what they earn, and two people who borrowed very different amounts but earn the same pay the same each month. The government’s repayment plan pages have the current threshold.

What changes for courses starting in 2027?

For most courses and modules starting on or after 1 January 2027, student finance is applied for through the government’s Lifelong Learning Entitlement, with applications opening at the end of October 2026. A student starting a degree in September 2027 applies this way. The government says Tuition Fee Loans and Maintenance Loans are still available through it, and the household income rules above come from its household income page.