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Can I afford to go to university?

Hello Everyone,

I'd appreciate any advice or direction on how I can afford to go to university.

I've got a place at Plymouth studying paramedicine, starting this year, which is a BA Hons. I've never had a student loan before but, because I have a BA degree from Australia I can't get a full student loan. Each adviser I speak to seems to say something different, but the last person I spoke to said that I should be eligible for a full tuition fee loan of £9000 for the 3rd year and a maintenance grant/loan for every year.

To complicate things, I have a 5 month old daughter and my wife is pregnant so child care and child care costs make things even more difficult. (I'll be applying for a child care grant).

So, in summary, I need to find £9000 for each of the first two years of study + more to make my wife's child care/work juggling act practical. It's not looking possible...

Does anyone have any information on any grants/bursaries that might help? Perhaps ones that are specific to mature students/paramedicine or any way of borrowing more money from the student loan company?

Cheers,

Adam

Reply 1

Klix88

Is your course NHS-funded? If not, you're going to be hit by the Student Finance "Equivalent or Lower Qualification" (ELQ) rule, which states that you can't get SF funding for a qualification the same as, or lower than, the one you already have. In that case, you won't get any SF funding apart from possibly the Parents' Learning Allowance and Childcare Grant which won't be substantial even if you do qualify. However if your course is partly NHS-funded, this rule does not apply.

These are the 2012/13 ELQ rules, although I don't believe they've changed since:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@educ/documents/digitalasset/dg_201332.pdf

Scholarships and bursaries might be available, but these are given by individual universities. You'd need to check direct with Plymouth - details are usually on their website somewhere. Beware that they are usually small amounts, with some larger fee waivers aimed at attracting students from low income families (which I guess might be you).

There are no loans specifically aimed at mature student undergraduate study, only postgraduate study (the Career Development Loan from Barclays or the Co-Op Bank).

You can't borrow more from Student Finance than your entitlement.

Reply 2

cheesepie

Thank you very much Klix88.

I'm afraid it's not NHS funded. It's all looking depressingly rather unlikely at the moment. As you say, the amounts on offer are small amounts. It looks like it's decision made...