Career Development Loan

Hey guys. I looked a little into the CDL last year when I started planning for my course this year (MSc at University of Birmingham).

The course I'm taking will be paying 80% of my tuition fees via an industry award, will I have any trouble getting the remaining 20% from Co-Op (I intend to go with them, they sound great)?

And I read a littl way up this page that a graduate loan would be a good idea to take out at the end of the course, pay off the CDL immediately and take it from there. Can anyone expand on this please?



Only thing I don't like is that you can't apply for a CDL until 8 weeks before the course starts. That's...not a lot of time to correct mistakes if something goes belly up.

[...] And I read a littl way up this page that a graduate loan would be a good idea to take out at the end of the course, pay off the CDL immediately and take it from there. Can anyone expand on this please? [...]

For you it is slightly different because you are not taking out the full amount so you have more room to play with in terms of repayment (i.e. anyone borrowing the full £10,000 will almost always take it over 60 months). But the reality is the APR on a graduate loan is higher than the professional and career development loan so you will not be saving any money whatsoever; it is actually more expensive.

You will save money if you manage to get an unsecured personal loan with something an APR of something like 5%, but you need to be in paid employment lasting more than eight months and at least £1000 going into your account per month (for my bank). This is one thing people conveniently forget to mention when they talk about paying off their CDL after they finish their course. As if banks will just give someone an unsecured loan of £10,000! Not to mention the APR might be higher than 5%. But if you can get a loan then you can save thousands if you took out the full CDL loan, and have lower repayments. For you it is less important because you are only taking out £2000.

As far as I'm aware, you can apply for a CDL from 3 months before the start of your course.

Reason why taking out a graduate loan to pay off the CDL is because you'll be pay back less interest on the repayments in the graduate loan, so you can save yourself a couple of hundred pounds by doing this.

I'm not sure if you can get the entirety of that remaining 20% paid for by the CDL. They say they can cover up to 80% of course fees if you've been working prior to taking the loan (and things like grants or awards won't affect a loan approval btw), so quite possibly, with the 20% amount left of the course fees, the CDL may only cover 80% of that amount...if that make sense..

[...] I should provide more info. My course fees are £5,130 in total, I'll only need to cover £1,026 of that plus living expenses (I'm projecting in the range of £5,000 for those, very roughly I might add). At a guess I'd be borrowing a probable maximum of £6,000 for the year, what would you recommend as the wisest course of action based on this? [...]

Ok, having a little heart attack moment of sorts.

I've got a place at QMUL for this year to do an MA. However, I was just reading over the tuition fee payments information, and it came to my attention that it is expected that ALL Postgraduate students must pay 50% of their tuition fees BEFORE enrollment. I'm using the CDL to cover my tuition fees, so how does this work exactly? Will an arrangement be made between the bank and QM for the payment installments to be made and I don't have to worry about paying that 50%? I'm aware that I'll have to pay 20% of the tuition fees anyway since I've been working, so would I be expected to pay that upfront directly to QM, and then QM will send instruction to my bank telling I've enrolled and thus the payments for the rest will start going to QM?

Any insights will be greatly appreciated.

Ah, I only thought you were looking for a loan for your tuition fees.

Living costs are a different story all together. It will depend entirely upon your circumstances. For example, when I applied for a career development loan, I used what was left over from my tuition fees to cover living expenses (i.e. £5550). This was not really enough given I moved to a relatively expensive part of the country (Bristol), but I took out the full £10,000 so there was nothing more I could do other than pick up little bits of work when I could (e.g. invigilation).

Living expenses are the one thing the bank will not really question so I would use this to your advantage. Things always cost more than you think. So if you wanted to borrow £6026 overall then just round it up to give you a safety net (e.g. £7000 or £7500). It is also clearer how much you are paying back in interest overall.

In terms of repayment, if you know you have a job and can afford repayments then pay it over three years or even less. You will pay far less interest overall. But this means there is less incentive to apply for an unsecured loan as there interest rate differences are minimal, and you lose the protection you get with a CDL (i.e. you can defer your payments if you are unemployed or on tax credits for up to 18 months). If you are at all unsure then take it out over five years.

hmm insightful, thankyou! Yeah I'm lucky enough to be getting an 80% industry award for tuition fees, and housing is looking to be in the £60-£70 range (hurrah!).

Yeah I hear you there, I figured I'd borrow a little more to cover tuition fees via living expenses, just in case they wouldn't give me the full 100% coverage for whatever reason. I'll be keeping a weekend job while I study too; if I don't need to spend that extra money I can start putting it aside for repayments or in case of emergency.

HA yeah they do, I used to spend £20 a week on food shopping but I'm willing to bet that won't be possible any more. Like I say, anything I don't need to spend can go aside for repayments after the fact.


My course leader suggests that nearly everyone comes off the course and walks straight into a job (we do our dissertation with an industry firm, who also happen to be giving out the industry awards); but, nearly everyone isn't really solid enough to bank a repayment plan on if you ask me.

In terms of repayment, if you know you have a job and can afford repayments then pay it over three years or even less. You will pay far less interest overall. But this means there is less incentive to apply for an unsecured loan as there interest rate differences are minimal, and you lose the protection you get with a CDL (i.e. you can defer your payments if you are unemployed or on tax credits for up to 18 months). If you are at all unsure then take it out over five years.

It sounds like you have your head screwed on right. I would only be wary of your course leader's suggestion. Unless he actually works in industry, then it is likely to be bull**** just to get you on the course. We are still in the middle of a recession and competition for jobs is tough for everyone.

I made a comment earlier in this thread so I hope this will not be considered a duplicate. I am a EU citizen and I desperately need a loan to study in the UK. The problem is that most of the banks (if not all) in my country are bankrupted and they do not provision loans.

Is there ANY way to get a loan or funding with a earthly rate (no loan shark options please ) from the UK as a EU citizen?

[...] I've phoned up today to request an application form for the CDL, and the woman on the phone said that if I apply for the NHS Social Work Bursary then I can't apply for the CDL because the Bursary covers the cost of the fees (it doesn't!). But then on the university website, it says that you can apply for the CDL as a supplement to any bursaries, grants etc (and all of this was in the postgrad section). So i'm feeling a bit confused.....

The university is wrong. You cannot use a career development loan to supplement statutory student support (i.e. support from the NHS, SAAS or SLC). A career development loan is a loan of last resort intended for students who have no other means to finance further study.

Proper social work degrees with HCPC accreditation are funded by NHS Business Services Authority. The NHS do not always fully fund every course for the whole duration, because not every course needs such an incentive or is under subscribed (dentistry and medicine are prime examples). I know from 2013/14 social work is not funded in the first year so you should talk to the SLC in your resident country to see if they will provide support in the first instance. If they are unwilling to provide support then you will have to fund it yourself.

Hey, does anyone know how long it takes from application to receiving the money for a cdl? Also I read that after you finish your course, you must get employment in the UK if you take out a CDL. Is this true? Thanks.

Hey, does anyone know how long it takes from application to receiving the money for a cdl? Also I read that after you finish your course, you must get employment in the UK if you take out a CDL. Is this true? Thanks.