Tuition Fee Loan

From http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate-study/fees-and-costs/sources-of-funding/index.shtml :

Tuition Fee Loan
In addition to the maintenance loan, all UK/EU students will be able to apply for an income assessed loan for up to £3,000 per year to cover fees. You will not pay anything until after you have left university.

Whose income is being assessed? Mine? My parents'?

(I'm a Swedish resident, i.e. EU resident, at the age of 19).

Thanks

Reply 1

BloodyValentine

Your parents. They work out how much you get based on your parents income. I think it starts at 2500 basic and then the rest is worked out on how much your parents combined income is/

University College London

London

Reply 2

alexandros

Seriously? I'm EU as well and this is worrying. I was under the impression that everyone would be given the £3k loan!

Reply 3

Beekeeper

alexandros

Seriously? I'm EU as well and this is worrying. I was under the impression that everyone would be given the £3k loan!

Probably a good thing really, in the long run you'll be pleased you haven't got a huge loan to pay off...

Reply 4

FarEastGerman

This cannot be! now I'm worried too, i had built on that loan!

But calm down everyone (including me). This is what is said in the 'Living in London' booklet i was sent after i got my offer, so it must be up-to-date:

"From September 2006 UCL will introduce tuition fees for UK and EU stuudents of 3,000 GB Poinds a year for full-time undergraduate degree programmes. Under the new higher education funding arrangements students will NOT (my capitals) have to pay the fees before they start university or while they are studying. Students will be able to take out a student loan for fees which will be paid directly to their university on their behalf. Students repay the tuition fees following graduation and once they are earning over 15,000 GB Pounds per year."

From this, and what i've seen on other university sites as well as from DFES, i think (more like hope) that it's safe to infer that all UK and EU students, no matter what income, will automatically get this loan. Otherwise, why wouldn't they have mentioned this in the booklet???

And again, UCAS (http://www.ucas.com/studentfinance/index.html) says for EU students:

"If you’re an EU student

If you are an EU student studying at an English university or college you will pay fees in the same way as UK/home students. You will have access to the deferred fees scheme, so will only repay your fees after graduation. However, you are not entitled to maintenance support in the same way as home students."

As well as other stuff that I needn't quote....

Reply 5

jb_sweden

You could be right. It is a fact that UCL's website isn't fully updated for the new tuition fee.

Just in case, I've emailed the union with the same question. I'll post the answer here.

Reply 6

FarEastGerman

That's probably the best idea, yes. On the Finance thread of TSR

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=137014

it reads slighlty differently again, which is a bit confusing. What i gather from there is that everyone gets the loan but the amount of the fees to be repaid is variable according to income. So if you/your parents earn less, you repay less, but the whole loan system stays the same. Which i could live with as well, but all this uncertainty really isn't helpful. Thanks for taking some affirmative action jb_sweden!

Reply 7

BloodyValentine

well my student loan was means assesed and i get something like 2600 pound a year based on me and my parents income. I don't know if it's different for EU students however here is the student finance website http://www.studentsupportdirect.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=1647,467417&_dad=portal&_schema=PROTOCOL and there is the calculator which will work out how much you're entitled to which you can access by clicking first i am planning to enter higher education then by clicking calculate my entitlement.

Reply 8

FarEastGerman

Thanks BloodyValentine. Does that mean you have to pay the other 400 pound a year up front though? Or is that ALL you will have to repay, ie through the means assessment your tuition fees have been reduced to 2600 pounds a year?
I don't care much about the amount of the loan (well, i do, but i won't haggle over 'peanuts'. My god, how arrogant that sounds...) but i really don't want to have to start paying tuition fees whilst i'm still studying. This whole loan arrangement is just so much better.

Reply 9

BloodyValentine

Oh wait you get way more than i thought you did i'm on deferred entry so i suspect my loan entitlement is slightly different since the tuition fees all change.
Anyhow you get 75% of the £6130 you're entitled to as a london student as non income assessed money then if you want to get more you give information of your parents income and a percentage of the remaining 25% is added to what you have already.
Now with that cash which comes to about £1500 quid a term since loans (and university fees are paid in installement per term + what income assessed is you can either pay your fees directly, i.e your fees are deducted from your loan and you get the left overs (i don't know if UCL have gone up to the full £2700 for 2006 so i don't know how much that will be my fees are at the old 1150 rate hence my confusion over loans.)
OR what you can do is be given the whole chunk of money and then deal with all the university fees payment etc... yourself.
But either way you'll be getting a loan which covers tuition fees and a little more which you will have to pay back afterwards, if you choose to blow that loan on a raging cocaine habit or something you will have to pay the fees as you go along which is why the direct debit of fees from your loan is probably the safest option better to not see the money at all and have all dealt with.

After this you can get a grant which you don't have to pay back but since you're coming from cyprus/sweden to study i'm guessing your parents earn more than a combined £37000 a year if they don't check out UCL student support finance whatever it's called and i'm sure they will give you information on how much you are entitled to. Here is the link for that http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate-study/fees-and-costs/sources-of-funding/bursaries/index.shtml
Here is the link for the UCL finance bit http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate-study/fees-and-costs/index.shtml

I hope that's clear you should contact student support for more info since clearly this is only based on my understanding of student finances