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Support for Postgraduate Students

If you are going to study a postgraduate course you will not receive any funding from the government. It is a good idea to have your funding in place before embarking on a course. There are limited funding options available to you and you might have to make up funds from a few different sources. Some options you could consider are:

•A bank loan
•Funding from charitable trusts and educational bodies
•Sponsorship from employers
•Personal savings
•Research councils(if you are undertaking a reserach degree)

Loans

Shop around the various banks asking for rates and quotes for graduate and professional studies loans and see who will offer you the best deal. Beware of interest rates which are not fixed and think about when and how you are going to pay them back. Two loans designed specifically for students are:

Career development loans

These are run in partnership by Barclays, Co-op, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Learning and Skills council
The Learning and Skills Council pay off the interest whilst you study.
You pay back the loan once you graduate at a fixed level of interest.

Visit www.direct.gov.uk for information about Career development loans.

Sponsorship from employers

Some employers are willing to pay for Masters degrees and you may receive sponsorship for doing a doctorate. This will have to be pre-arranged before you start the course.

Funding from educational bodies and charitable trusts

There are many of these offering small amounts of funding to students. It is a good idea to try to access some funds from these whether or not you have a loan. A bit of extra help is always nice and you will not generally have to pay the money back. However you are unlikely to find complete funding via this route. Look at our page about Funding from educational bodies and charitable trusts.

Research Councils
The research councils do not usually offer funding for Masters level courses, but if you are taking a PhD you may be able to find sponsorship for your research. Visit the Research Councils UK website at http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/resfunding.htm.