UK Doctoral Loans Confirmed for EU Students

There's good news if you're planning on coming to study a PhD in the UK as an EU student in 2018-19. On top of existing fee and funding guarantees, it's now been confirmed that the new doctoral student loans will be available to EU citizens.

We're really pleased to see this and have updated our full PhD loan guide to reflect the latest information.

For those who just want the latest details, here's what's changed:

As above, it's now been confirmed that you will be able to get a UK PhD loan as an EU student in 2018-19.

You'll need to be ordinarily resident in England and studying at a UK university or ordinarily resident in the EU, EEA or Switzerland and studying at an English university.

Students from Switzerland and the EEA (Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland) may also be able to apply for loans, provided they have the right to live and work in the UK and pay university fees at the 'home' rate.

PhD loan payments will be available throughout your doctorate, even if you study for the maximum length of eight years.

However much you borrow (up to the maximum of £25,000) will be split evenly across each year of your course. That annual amount will then be paid to you in three roughly equal instalments per year.

Repayments for PhD loans are staying at the planned 6% of income over £21,000 (they aren't rising to £25,000 along with undergraduate loans).

However, students on long PhDs will enter 'repayment status' after they've been studying for four years. This means that you could end up making repayments during a PhD, but only if you're earning over £21,000 a year whilst you study.

PhDs that include time studying at a university outside the UK will now be eligible, making loans available for joint doctorates and other courses. However, your degree must be awarded by a UK university and you can't be outside the UK for more than 50% of it.

Wales still intends to introduce a similar PhD loans system for 2018-19 and is currently inviting responses to a public consultation on these plans. We'll have more information here on the blog (and in our newsletter) once it's available.

You can learn more about the doctoral loans and get your PhD funding questions answered at our free Postgrad LIVE! study fairs.