PhD Loans

A doctoral loan lets you borrow up to £25,000 to start a new UK PhD in any subject this year. Applications are now open!

The money is provided by the UK Government and is paid to you in instalments. Repayments are income-contingent and are made when you are earning over £21,000 a year.

Postgraduate doctoral loans are new for 2018-19. They're available to English-resident students and EU students studying at English universities. Separate loans are available in Wales.

You can borrow up to £25,000 with a doctoral student loan. All of the money is paid directly to your bank account for you to use for PhD fees, research expenses, maintenance or other costs.

Doctoral loans aren't means-tested and the amount you can borrow isn't affected by your income or savings.

It's up to you to decide how much you want to borrow (up to the maximum) but whatever you request will be divided evenly across your PhD and paid in three instalments per year.

• 33% for your first payment (once your registration is confirmed)
• 33% for your second payment (four months into your course)
• 34% for your third payment (seven months into your course)

Assuming you borrow the full amount your doctoral loan payments will look something like this:

You can apply for a loan and begin receiving payments later in your doctorate. However, you can only borrow up to £10,609 per year. This means that you might not receive the full amount if you apply after the first year of your course.

For example, if you applied for a loan in the second year of a three year PhD, you could receive £10,609 per year for a total of £21,218, not £12,500 per year for a total of £25,000.

The value of the English doctoral loans is increasing to £25,700 for 2019-20 degrees, but this won't apply until after 1 August 2019.

PhD loans are available to UK and EU students provided the following apply:

• Nationality - You'll need to be a UK citizen (or have settled status) or an EU citizen. PhD loans aren't affected by Brexit.
• Residency - UK applicants will need to have been living in the UK for the past three years and be ordinarily resident in England. EU applications will need to have been living in the EU, EEA or Switzerland for the past three years and be either ordinarily resident in England or coming to study at an English university.
• Age - All applicants must be under 60 (59 or younger) on the first day of their course. This will normally be 1 September if your PhD begins in Autumn 2018 or 1 January if your PhD begins in Spring 2019.
• Existing qualifications & study - You can't already hold a PhD (or other doctorate) or be applying for a loan for a course that began before 1 August 2018.
• Other funding - You can't combine a PhD loan with a Research Council studentship or other government funding (such as an NHS bursary).

You may be eligible for a loan if you aren’t a UK or EU national, but one of the following applies:

• You are the child of either a Swiss national or Turkish worker
• You or a family member are an EEA or Swiss national working in the UK
• You or a family member have been granted refugee status or humanitarian protection in the UK
• You are 18 or over and have lived in the UK for at least 20 years and / or half of your life

Doctoral loans haven't yet been announced for Scotland or Northern Ireland, but our newsletter will let you know if this changes.

PhD loans are available for all types of UK doctoral degree in the UK, in any subject. This includes academic doctorates such as a PhD and DPhil, as well as professional doctorates such as a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) or EdD (Doctor of Education).

The only restriction is that your doctorate must be awarded for a new programme of study beginning on or after 1 August 2018. This means it can't be a PhD by publication, or a course you're already studying. You must also be studying for a full doctorate (not a standalone MPhil).

English-resident students can use the loan for a PhD at any UK university (the same applies to Welsh-resident students applying for the Welsh doctoral loan).

EU students who normally live outside the UK can use the loan to study at any English university (or apply for a Welsh loan to study in Wales).

You can study full time or part time provided your PhD lasts between 3 and 8 years. The length of your course will be based on the submission date set for your thesis (and agreed with your university when you apply).

You can apply for a PhD loan now!

To do so online, login or register at the Student Finance England website. Alternatively, you can download an application form (PDF) to apply by post.

If you already have an account with Student Finance England, you should use this to apply for a postgraduate doctoral loan. You’ll need to give details about your PhD, residency status and how much you want to borrow.

The application deadline for PhD loans is fairly relaxed – you have to apply within nine months of the first day of the final academic year of your doctorate. Depending on when you start your PhD during the year, there are four possible ‘first days’, which you can see in the table below.

As an example, if you start a three-year PhD on 22 October 2018, you should apply for a doctoral loan before 31 May 2021.

Remember though, that applying later in your PhD could limit the maximum amount you can borrow (you can't receive more than £10,609 in a single academic year).

The Welsh Government has introduced its own PhD loans for 2018-19 and applications are now open! The Welsh doctoral loans work similarly to the English loans and are also be worth up to £25,000 per year.

The only differences are as follows:

• UK students will need to be ordinarily resident in Wales (not England). EU students will only be able to use a Welsh doctoral loan to study in Wales.
• Applications should be made to Student Finance Wales. You can apply online or post an application form (PDF).

Wales is also considering introducing up to 150 PhD scholarships for Welsh students, but these won't be available for 2018.

We'll provide more information on this page and through our newsletter when further details are available.

Repayments for PhD loans are income contingent. You only repay your PhD loan when you are earning over £21,000 a year (£1,750 a month) and you only repay 6% of what you earn over that threshold.

You'll begin repayments in the first April after you leave your course or in the April four years after your PhD starts (whichever is sooner). This means that you can be eligible to start repaying the loan during your PhD, but only if you're earning enough.

How you repay depends on your employment status:

• If you are employed in the UK HMRC will automatically deduct repayments from your salary on behalf of the Student Loans Company. This will usually happen monthly.
• If you are self-employed you will need to make repayments to HMRC as part of your annual tax return.
• If you are working outside the UK you will need to make repayment arrangements with the Student Loans Company. You should do this before you leave the UK.
• If you are unemployed you won't make repayments. The same applies if you are ever earning less than £21,000 a year.

You may also need to repay your PhD loan alongside other student loans. How this works depends on which loan(s) you have:

• PhD loan repayments are combined with those for Masters loans - you will make one repayment of 6% of your income over £21,000 towards a single postgraduate loan debt
• All postgraduate loan repayments are concurrent with those for undergraduate loans - you will repay 6% of your income over £21,000 towards your Masters and / or PhD loan and 9% of your income over £25,000 towards your undergraduate loan

Interest is charged on a PhD loan at the same rate as Masters loans: RPI (the Retail Prices Index) +3%. The current rate is 6.3%.

Any remaining PhD loan debt (including interest) is cancelled after 30 years from the point at which you begin repayments.

PhD loans are brand new for 2018-19 and it's no surprise that there are still a few questions about the scheme.

That's why we've put together this list of PhD loan FAQs. If you do have further questions about the scheme, hopefully we've answered them here. If not, get in touch with us by emailing editor[at]FindAPhD.com and we'll do our best to help.

No. You can borrow the same amount with a doctoral loan regardless of how much your degree costs.

Yes. Any extra loan can be used to help with living costs or other expenses.

You can borrow anything between £1 and £25,000 Whatever you request will be divided equally across your PhD, but you can't receive more than £10,609 in any one year.

No. You can use some of your doctoral loan for living costs, but there isn't any separate PhD maintenance loan.

Yes. You can change your PhD loan amount later by submitting a PhD loan request form (PDF). You can't do this online.

Capping the annual amount for a PhD loan at £10,609 is designed to keep the postgraduate loan system fair: it means that doctoral students and Masters students can borrow the same amount per year.

Yes. The maximum value of a doctoral loan will increase to £25,700 for students starting in 2019-20. This will only apply to degrees that begin after 1 August 2019.

This is up to you and depends on your funding circumstances.

The PhD funding is meant to be flexible though: you could apply for a loan to help support you throughout your doctorate, or use it to bridge gaps between funding or replace income from a part-time job as you focus on the later stages of your project.

No. You can borrow the same amount regardless of your income, savings or credit rating.

The only exceptions concern outstanding arrears to the Student Loans Company (for repayments you were eligible to make, but didn't). However, you may be able to apply for a loan if you clear these.

Potentially, yes. Because the loan is paid directly to you it may be regarded as a form of income by the Department for Work and Pensions. You should check this if you are concerned about your benefit entitlement with a PhD loan.

Yes. You can have a PhD loan and receive Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) during your PhD.

No. Unfortunately you can't apply for a PhD loan if you're also receiving any form of Research Council funding - including a 'fees-only' award.

Potentially. Some Research Council awards allow students to apply again for the second year of their PhD. Having had a PhD loan may not stop you doing this, provided you cancel it before receiving your Research Council funding.

Note that this still doesn't work the other way around: you can't apply for a PhD loan once you've been awarded Research Council funding.

The Government may decide to raise the value of the PhD loan with inflation in future years (this has happened with the Masters loans). However, this increase won't apply to students who are already receiving a loan or who started a PhD in a previous academic year.

Yes. You can have a postgraduate doctoral loan and postgraduate Masters loan. However, you can't be receiving them both at the same time (you'll need to finish your Masters before you begin your PhD).

You'll receive the first payment for your PhD loan once you start your PhD and your university confirms that you have registered on your project or programme.

Your payment schedule will be based on the intended submission date for your doctoral thesis, agreed with your university at the start of your degree.

Only if you are still ahead of your submission date. Your university may allow you extra time to finish writing up your thesis, but you won't receive any extra payments if you've already had your full loan by that point.

Yes. The PhD loans are intended to be a permanent addition to the funding options for postgraduate study in the UK, not a one-off scheme. You will be able to apply for a loan to start a new doctorate in 2019-20, or to help pay for a PhD you started in 2018-19.

You can only apply for a loan for a new PhD beginning in the 2018-19 academic year (not the 2018 calendar year). You can apply after the beginning of a PhD, but it must have started after 1 August 2018.

Yes, provided you haven't earned a doctoral qualification and you are starting a completely new doctorate (not continuing or resuming your previous programme or project).

However, you can't normally apply for a second doctoral loan, even if your first loan was for an incomplete qualification. Exceptions may apply if you can demonstrate compelling personal reasons for exiting your first doctorate - Student Finance England will consider your case if so.

Yes. You can still apply for a doctoral loan for a programme that initially registers students at MPhil level before upgrading them to PhD candidacy.

However, if you are only enrolling for an MPhil, you should apply for a Masters loan instead.

Yes. All types of doctorate are eligible for PhD loans, provided the qualification is awarded for a programme of work at a UK university.

No. You can't apply for a loan if you're submitting a PhD by published work (based on a portfolio of research you've already completed). In this case there would be no new project or programme for the loan to pay for!

Yes. You can still get a loan for a PhD that also awards a Masters degree, including an integrated doctorate or a '1+3' programme. However, you must be registering to graduate with the doctorate, not the Masters.

Yes, provided the UK university is the lead institution for your PhD and you spend at least 50% of your course in the UK.

The loans don't actually distinguish between full-time and part-time students. Your PhD can last between 3 and 8 years, however you study.

In practice, most UK universities will regard a 3-4 year PhD as 'full time' and a 6-8 year PhD as 'part time'. You will agree the exact length of your programme with your university.

Yes, provided you are living in England on the first day of the first academic year of your PhD and living in the UK for the entire course. EU students who are coming to the UK to study will need to be living in England for their entire course.

You can't get a PhD loan to study by distance learning and live outside the UK.

No. The new doctoral loan is intended to help new students progress to PhD-level study. Unfortunately, you can't apply for this student finance if you already have a doctorate (even if you paid for it yourself).

No. To be eligible for a loan your project or programme must be a complete doctorate, begun after 1 August 2018. You can't get a loan to extend or 'top up' and existing MPhil or other qualification.

To be eligible for a doctoral loan as a UK student you must be ordinarily resident in England. This means that England is where you normally live and you haven’t moved there just to go to university.

You will normally count as being ordinarily resident in England if any or all of the following are true:

Don't forget that the residency criteria are (obviously) different for the Welsh PhD loans - if you're applying for one of these you should be ordinarily resident in Wales, not England.

You will still count as an English-resident if you have studied your undergraduate degree or Masters in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland and want to continue straight on to a PhD. This means you will be able to apply for an English doctoral loan.

Because you only moved to England to study, your residency status won’t have changed. You will still count as being ordinarily resident in Wales (in which case you should apply for a Welsh doctoral loan) or in Scotland or Northern Ireland (in which case you won't be able to apply for a doctoral loan this year).

Living and working in a different part of the UK means you aren’t just there to go to university. This can change your residency status.

For example:

The same would be true for an English student who had lived and worked elsewhere in the UK after graduating - it's possible that this could mean you are no longer classed as English-resident for student loan purposes.

If you aren’t sure about your residency status, check with Student Finance England.

You’ll be asked to provide at least three years’ address history during your postgraduate loan application. Student Finance England may query any details that might affect your eligibility.

In order to apply for a student loan as a UK citizen you must have lived in the UK for three years prior to your course. You can travel abroad for holidays or other periods of ‘temporary absence’ during this period, but you shouldn’t have become ordinarily resident in another country.

Yes. You can apply for a postgraduate loan to study a PhD in the UK as an EU student this year.

Some of the eligibility criteria for EU students are slightly different:

EU eligibility for all postgraduate loans is guaranteed for courses beginning in 2018-19. Provided you start your course in the coming academic year you will continue to receive loan payments for the rest of your degree (including after Brexit).

There’s more information in our guide to Brexit and postgraduate study.

Students from the EEA (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) or Switzerland may be eligible for a PhD loan if the following apply:

Citizens of countries outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland aren’t normally eligible for UK student loans.

Exceptions may apply if you have lived in the UK legally for a very long time, have been granted humanitarian protection or have refugee status.

For more information on UK fees and finance as a postgraduate student we recommend you check the resources produced by the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA).

And, if you can't get a loan, you might still be eligible for other international PhD funding in the UK.

If you are ordinarily resident in England (or Wales) before your course, you can use your loan to study anywhere in the UK.

If you are an EU student and are ordinarily resident outside the UK, you can only use your loan to study in England.

In order to receive a doctoral loan you must be doing your PhD at a university with Research Degree Awarding Powers (RDAPs). Most established UK universities have these powers, but your institution should be able to confirm if you aren't sure.

You can't get a PhD loan to study your entire doctorate abroad. However, you can spend part of your degree outside the UK, provided this does not exceed 50% of your programme and your UK university is the lead institution awarding your PhD.

The current rate for postgraduate doctoral loans is 6.1%. This is expected to rise to 6.3% in September 2018.

Now! PhD loan applications opened on 18 June 2018. You can apply online or by post (PDF).

Yes. If you have already have an account with Student Finance England you must use it to apply for your doctoral loan.

No. You only have to apply for a doctoral loan once.

No. You will need to state which university you intend to research your doctorate at (and how long for) but you don't need to prove you've been accepted before you can apply for a PhD loan. However, you will need to register for your PhD before you receive any actual loan payments (your university should confirm this for you).

We're always looking for useful details to add to this FAQ. If you’ve got a PhD loan question we haven’t covered, please let us know by emailing editor[at]findaphd.com. We’ll do our best to find the answer for you and then we'll add it here.

Last updated - 30/11/2018