The Student Room Group

How Previous study affects what you can get by SLC

Got a question about how previous study will affect what student finance you can get? Our experts are here to help.

Graham is one of Student Finance England's experienced Student Finance Advisors. He specialises in Student Finance England (SFE), Postgraduate Loan (PGL), EU and Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) funding. As a Customer Advisor, he provides information, advice and guidance to students, parents and university practitioners.

Please be aware all answers will be posted on Friday 16 February.
(edited 6 years ago)
Hi.

I studied for one term with the open university. I ended up not continuing as I had something quite huge happen. Will this prevent me from getting student finance?

Thanks.
I have received full funding for my previous degree but am just wondering if I could get the same funding for my second degree being a Medicine course?

Also, what about other STEM subjects?
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have read through thestudentroom.co.uk webpage concerning Postgraduate Loan for academic year 2017/2018 and I am not sure about whether I am eligible for student finance, concerning my previous study.
I am EU citizen (the Czech Republic) and I have been made a conditional offer at the University of Cambridge, LLM program. I would like to apply for Postgraduate Loan 2017/2018 and I have already obtained magistr degree in law in the Czech Republic. It was a five-years-long course (undivided into undergraduate and postgraduate degree) starting after my maturita, final examination at grammar school (equivalent to A-levels in England) that I have attended at the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Without this Czech degree in law I would not be able to be selected for LLM course at the University of Cambridge, LLM program. The magistr degree in law from the Charles University in considered as a professional degree because it is the only one that allows you to practice law in the Czech Republic. The LLM degree is postgraduate degree and I would like to verify with you whether I am eligible for the Postgraduate Loan for LLM under these circumstances.
Thank you in advance.
Yours faithfully
Reply 4
Hi there, I would like to continue my an MSc degree in Data Science. Is it possible to get some post graduate study loan. I already have one post graduate degree, however I haven't got any financial help for that. I was paying my all expenses and tuition fees myself for my previous MSc. do you think I would be eligible? I am a British Student
Original post by tomstrelda
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have read through thestudentroom.co.uk webpage concerning Postgraduate Loan for academic year 2017/2018 and I am not sure about whether I am eligible for student finance, concerning my previous study.
I am EU citizen (the Czech Republic) and I have been made a conditional offer at the University of Cambridge, LLM program. I would like to apply for Postgraduate Loan 2017/2018 and I have already obtained magistr degree in law in the Czech Republic. It was a five-years-long course (undivided into undergraduate and postgraduate degree) starting after my maturita, final examination at grammar school (equivalent to A-levels in England) that I have attended at the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Without this Czech degree in law I would not be able to be selected for LLM course at the University of Cambridge, LLM program. The magistr degree in law from the Charles University in considered as a professional degree because it is the only one that allows you to practice law in the Czech Republic. The LLM degree is postgraduate degree and I would like to verify with you whether I am eligible for the Postgraduate Loan for LLM under these circumstances.
Thank you in advance.
Yours faithfully


Hi,

If you have an undergraduate degree, it won’t affect your eligibility for a Postgraduate Master’s Loan.

You can only get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan if you don’t already have a Master’s qualification or a higher-level qualification. As you already hold a qualification that is equivalent to a Master’s level qualification, you won’t be able to get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan.

Kind regards
Graham
Original post by Pallabi
Hi there, I would like to continue my an MSc degree in Data Science. Is it possible to get some post graduate study loan. I already have one post graduate degree, however I haven't got any financial help for that. I was paying my all expenses and tuition fees myself for my previous MSc. do you think I would be eligible? I am a British Student


Hi,

As you already hold a MSc qualification, you won’t be eligible to get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan. This still applies even if you self funded your previous MSc course.

You can only get a Postgraduate Master’s Loan if you don’t already have a Master’s qualification.

Kind regards
Graham
Original post by Winner winner
Hi.

I studied for one term with the open university. I ended up not continuing as I had something quite huge happen. Will this prevent me from getting student finance?

Thanks.


Hi,

Even though you have attended the one term we will count this as one year previous study.

At student fiance we assess on a previous study calculation, this differs depending on whether you study full time or part time. For full time we use a calculation which goes as so;

We take the original duration of the course, then we add an additional year of funding, then we take away all years of previous study leaving us with the amount of years left to fund. Even if you have no years of funding left we would look at awarding you maintenance loan, possible grants for dependent and also disabled students allowance unless you had compelling personal reasons which has been covered in other forums prior to this.

If you are studying part time we can award up to a maximum of 16 years of funding depending on the intensity of your course.

I hope this helps.
Original post by AnEvolvedApe
I have received full funding for my previous degree but am just wondering if I could get the same funding for my second degree being a Medicine course?

Also, what about other STEM subjects?


Hi,

With having a previous degree you could still possibly get funding for a second, we have a range of expection course which allow you to get funding again for example we have:
Subjects allied to medicine
NHS courses
PGCE courses
And subjected which lead you to getting qualifications in the below subjects;
- Medical Doctor
- Dentist
- Veterinary Surgeon
- Architect
- Social Worker
- Teaching qualification where student is awarded QTS (more than two years in length eg hons degree courses)

This would be mean you would get support with ourselves if studying an exception course.

STEM subjects are our part time exception courses and they are;

Engineering
Computer science
Technologies
Subjects allied to medicine
Biological sciences
Veterinary sciences, Agricultural and related subjects
Physical sciences
Mathematical sciences

I hope this helps.
That's the end of the chat, thanks to Graham and Luke!