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This page tells you about the financial help your son or daughter might get if they go into higher education, and the fees they might have to pay. This is a complicated subject, and there is more detailed information available if you need it. When we say higher education we mean a place on a degree, higher diploma or similar course.

Whether a student can get help towards paying for their education and their living costs depends on the income of their parents, their spouse if they are married or their own income. At the moment, parents' income is not taken into account if their child:

• has been married for at least one year or
• is over 25 or
• has supported themselves for at least three years since leaving school.

The rest of this leaflet is about what happens if none of those three applies to your child, so your income is taken into account.

Fees
Students may have to pay fees towards the cost of their education, these are called tuition fees. From September 2006, new students starting higher education courses at higher education institutions in England, will have to pay tuiton fees of up to £3000 per year. These fees do not have to be paid up front. Instead, students take out a loan for fees which they pay back once they have graduated and are earning over a certain amount.

Loans
There is a government loan which students can get to pay for what is called 'maintenance', that is food, rent, clothes, travel expenses, books and similar living expenses. The loan does not have to be paid back until your son or daughter is in work and earning over a certain amount; they will then repay the loan slowly over many years. How much your child can borrow from the government on this loan depends again on your income.

If your son or daughter cannot live on the amount they receive under this loan, they can ask you for help, use their own savings, get a job in the holidays or a part time one in term time, or take out an ordinary loan.

Are the rules the same for all students?
There are different rules for students studying to qualify in many health service careers. The National Health Service often pays the tuition fees and there might be a grant towards living expenses, depending again on parents' income.

The situation is also different for students who take another course after a first degree.

What do I have to do?
Your child will apply for higher education in the autumn of the year before they want to start. During the following spring you will get a form which you have to fill in giving information about your income, so that your local education authority can decide how much your child might have to pay. There will also be information booklets which explain things in more detail.

The help towards paying fees, and the loans, is only available to people who have been living permanently in this country, and have lived here for the last three years. The rules about this are complicated, so make sure your son or daughter checks with their local education authority if this may be a problem for them.

Is that all?

Not if your son or daughter decides to apply for higher education. Just use this leaflet as a starting point. The rules are complicated, and you will have to get up to date information about exactly how much the fees will be, how much the maximum loan is and things like that. There have been a lot of changes lately so you must make sure information is up to date.

The government publish a leaflet each year which gives very detailed informaion about how both tuition fees and maintenance loans work. You or your son or daughter can get this from their school or college, from your Connexions centre or from your local education authority.  This information is also on the internet, see the web link above for DfES student support.

 

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