Student Finance England is the government body to whom you can apply to borrow money to afford your tuition fees and (see below) maintenance costs. Once you have a confirmed university place you can apply online to SFE up to 9 months after your course starts. You can find out approximately what loan you are eligible for at: www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator

Tuition fee loans are paid directly from SFE to your university or college in 3 instalments (25% in the first term, 25% in the second term and 50% in the 3rd term.) You are expected to repay this loan, whether you complete your course or not. Loans also carry variable interest charges. For undergraduate courses, you only start to repay your loan when you are earning more than £21,000 per year and approximately 9% of the difference between this figure and what you actually earn. www.gov.uk/education/funding-and-finance-for-students

Aside from tuition fees, you will also have maintenance costs (rent, food, travel, entertainment, course materials etc.) The cost of living can vary greatly depending on where your university is located and whether you live on-campus or off-campus. The average living costs for an undergraduate is £12,000.

You can apply for a maintenance loan at the same time as applying for your tuition fee loan. Maintenance loans are ‘means tested’, so the amount you can receive depends upon your personal and / or family’s taxable income. To check your eligibility: www.gov.uk.student-finance-calculator. Your maintenance loan for the year is paid directly into your bank account and split into two or three instalments, depending on how many semesters you have in the year.

Depending on your circumstances, you may be eligible to apply for grants, bursaries or scholarships (e.g. sports, drama, academic, disability.) Check with individual institutions and also see: www.oodlesof.info

Deferring means applying for a course and then taking a year out before starting university – for example, you could apply in September 2018 to start university in September 2020. Usually, you can only defer your entry by one year. Some universities and colleges do not allow deferred entry for some subjects, such as medicine. Ensure you check with each university or college that they are happy to consider an application for deferred entry – they may not be offering the course the following year, they could be changing it, or may prefer students not to have a gap in studying before they start their degree.

You will still need to meet the conditions of any offers in the year that you apply (unless the university, college, or conservatoire tells you otherwise). It’s very important that you check the subjects, courses, and universities/colleges you’re applying to are open to applications for deferred entry, otherwise you could end up wasting one of your choices. Check the university or college website, read the course information carefully, and/or contact their admissions team to find out if your chosen subject/course will not accept deferrals.

The ideas with ‘Clearing’ is to identify courses with vacancies that interest you and contact the course provider directly to see if they will offer you a place.

You can use the UCAS Clearing system if:

• You did not receive any offers (or none you wanted and declined them)
• You didn’t meet the conditions of your offer (e.g. grade requirements)
• You applied after 30th June

Clearing is available between July and September every year, with the busiest period around ‘A’ Level results day. Advice will be available from staff if Clearing is necessary and you can also visit: www.ucas.com/undergraduate/results-confirmation-and-clearing/no-offers-learn-how-clearing-works