Student Finance
Your guide to Student Finance
In this toolkit, we'll be giving you guidance on everything to do with Student Finance, including student top tips for budgeting at university, how to apply for funding, how the student loan repayment system works, and sources of additional support for care leavers, young carers, students with disabilities and other personal circumstances. There will also be a section devoted to coronavirus-related questions.
If you have any further questions at all whilst reading this guide, you can ask our student ambassadors a question at any time, using the link below.
How do students fund their studies?
This short video explains how you pay for university, how student loans work, and how you repay these loans after you graduate. It’s been put together by Student Finance England and funding works the same way at all English Universities.
Scholarships & Bursaries
Scholarships and bursaries are FREE money that you never have to pay back. You can receive bursaries and scholarships for many different things. For example, you may be given this financial support if your household income is below a certain threshold, if you are a young carer, a care leaver or estranged student (independent of parents), a refugee or asylum seeker, or have other personal circumstances. You can also apply for bursaries and scholarships if you get particularly high grades or take part in sport competitively.
The amount given, how to apply, and if you will get this additional financial support, is different at different universities. So, do your research! You can view the scholarships we offer at the University of Sussex here.
You can apply for scholarships directly through the university you are going to and/or through The Scholarship Hub.
Also - if you tick the box on UCAS agreeing to share your information with the universities you are applying to, they may automatically award you a scholarship or bursary due to your circumstances.
How do you apply for Student Finance?
Student Finance England are the organisation who provide student loans. They recommend that you apply for Student Finance as soon as the applications open (normally in February of Year 13). It’s good to complete the application as soon as possible to ensure there aren't any delays in receiving your money when you first start university. Even if you have not got a confirmed place at a university yet, or have not made a decision on the university you'd like to go to, you can still apply by putting in your likely first choice at this current time. This can then be changed on your application at a later date if you decide on somewhere else instead.
Student Finance England put together a short video on how to apply every year (see left) which explains
What does managing money look like at university?
Hopefully the sections above have reassured you that everyone can access the funding to go to university if they would like to. Now we’re going to think about how students manage their money to make sure it lasts them throughout the year. Jorja, one of our brilliant student ambassadors, has given her top tips on budgeting and money management whilst studying at university.
How might COVID-19 affect your student finance application?
The Student Loans Company have a webpage dedicated to guidance for prospective students, which includes answers to common questions related to the COVID-19 outbreak:
A concern for some students is that the Student Finance application looks at household income from the previous year, and their household income may have changed significantly in the past few months due to the impact of COVID-19. If this is the case, you can complete the form below which means that your student loan calculation will instead be based on the current year's income:
Additional sources of support
We've included some links below to useful websites which provide more information on Student Finance, including support for specific groups:
University of Sussex Access Programme
If you are not already part of the University of Sussex Access Programme, please sign up to learn more about what it is like to study at university. Being part of the programme gives you access to a range of subject-specific academic events delivered by University of Sussex academics, Multi-Subject Taster Days, and a chance to attend our summer residential programme. All events free to take part-in, and include our student ambassadors. All you need to do is join our programme here.
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Last updated: 16.05.2022