PhD Loan – A Guide for 2021

You may be able to get a UK PhD loan of up to £27,265 from Student Finance England or Student Finance Wales for a doctoral degree in any subject. The money only needs to be paid back when you earn over £21,000 a year.

You can borrow up to £27,265 if your degree will start in 2021-22 (the amount is slightly lower if you've already begun your PhD). All of the money is paid directly to your bank account. You can use it for PhD fees, research expenses, maintenance or other costs.

Doctoral loans aren't based on household income or means tested, so 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, of course). This amount will then be spread evenly across your PhD, in three instalments per academic year.

The most you can get in any one academic year is £11,560. This means you won't necessarily be able to receive the full loan if you apply after the first year of your PhD.

You can apply if you're a UK national and:

• You've lived in the UK for at least three years (not including time abroad for short-term travel or study)
• You are ordinarily resident in England or Wales (you don't just live there to study)
• You will be aged under 60 (59 or under) on the first day of the first academic year of your PhD (usually 1 September for degrees beginning in the autumn)
• You don't already have a PhD or other doctorate
• You won't be receiving UKRI funding for your PhD (and haven't been funded by a Research Council in the past)
• You won't be receiving other UK public funding for your doctorate, such as a Social Work or Educational Psychology bursary
• Your doctorate isn't eligible for NHS funding (if it is, you should apply for this instead)

PhD loans for Scottish and Northern Irish students

UK doctoral loans are currently only offered by Student Finance England and Student Finance Wales. You won't normally be eligible to apply for their support if you are resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Student Finance Northern Ireland and Student Awards Agency Scotland may offer doctoral loans in the future. We'll let you know as soon as that happens.

PhD loans for EU students

You can apply for a UK doctoral loan as an EU student if:

• You began your PhD in the 2020-21 academic year or earlier

or

• You applied to the EU Settlement Scheme before 31 December 2020

EU students who are coming to study in the UK from 2021-22 onwards will count as international students (see below).

PhD loans for Irish students

Irish students can still apply for a UK PhD loan to study in either England or Wales. This right is guaranteed by the Common Travel Area and isn't affected by Brexit.

PhD loans for international students

International (non-UK) students aren't normally eligible for UK doctoral loans, but an exception may apply if:

• You have settled status in the UK
• You are an EU national and have applied to the UK's EU Settlement Scheme (see above)
• You are an Irish national (see above)
• 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

If you aren't sure whether you qualify for UK student finance, check advice from the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA).

The PhD loan is available for all types of research doctorate, 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).

However, you can't get a doctoral loan for a PhD by publication (you must be funding a programme of research and / or study).

UK students can study at any UK university. Eligible students who normally live outside the UK can use the doctoral loan to study at any English or Welsh university.

You can study full time or part time provided your PhD lasts between 3 and 8 years. You will be able to choose from different course lengths when you apply. These will be set by your university based on the intended submission date for your thesis.

PhD loan applications are now open for doctorates beginning in 2021-22 (or earlier).

Make sure you apply to the correct student finance provider. This will be:

• Student Finance England for English-resident students or Irish students coming to study in England
• Student Finance Wales for Welsh-resident students or Irish students coming to study in Wales

If you have an existing student finance account and Customer Reference Number (CRN) you should use this to apply for your PhD loan. The application system will also ask for details about your PhD (or other doctoral degree), residency status and how much you want to borrow.

The application deadline 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 2021, you should apply for a doctoral loan before 31 May 2024.

Remember though, that applying later in your PhD could limit the maximum amount you can borrow (you can't receive more than £11,560 in a single academic year).

Doctoral loan repayments are income contingent. You only repay your PhD loan when you are earning over £21,000 a year (£1,750 a month or £404 a week) 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 doctoral 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 other student loans along wth your PhD loan:

• PhD and Masters loan repayments are combined – 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 £26,575 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 5.6%.

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

Wales offers its own PhD loan for Welsh-resident UK students (and EU students coming to study in Wales). You can borrow up to £26,445 for a degree that began in 2020-21. The amount for 2021-22 isn't confirmed yet, but we'll let you know when it is.

Welsh PhD loans work the same way as English PhD loans. The only difference is that you should apply to Student Finance Wales, not Student Finance England.

Scotland and Northern Ireland don't offer a doctoral loan yet.

Here we've put together a comprehensive list of PhD loan FAQs. If you do have further questions, get in touch with us by emailing editor[at]FindAPhD.com and we'll do our best to help.

Last updated - 05/01/2021