Postgraduate loans

England

Postgraduate Master's Loans (PGMLs) are available from Student Finance England to study a master's course. If you are a master's student under 60 you can access a loan of up to £12,858 in total to contribute towards your tuition fees or living expenses. 

Wales

Postgraduate Master's Loan (PGMLs) are available from Student Finance Wales to study a master's course. If you are a master's student under 60 you can access a loan of up to £19,255 in total to contribute towards your tuition fees and/or living expenses. 

England and Wales

It's important to be aware that the master's finance may not be enough to cover both the costs of tuition fees and living expenses, so you'll need to have additional funding or money to fund these costs.

The PGML of £12,858 from Student Finance England or £19,255 from Student Finance Wales is the full amount for the whole course. It is not per year. You can apply for less than the maximum and you can increase the amount of loan requested up to one month before the end of the academic year.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own equivalent Postgraduate Master's Loan schemes for students who want to study in the UK. Further details are available on the following websites:

• Student Awards Agency for Scotland – full-time Scottish students
• Student Finance NI (for Northern Irish students)

In order to be eligible you must have been ordinarily resident in England (or Wales) recently and in the UK for at least three years on the first day of the academic year in which your course begins.

Eligible students must be:

• under 60 on 1 September 2025 (or 1 January 2026 if the course starts in January)
• without a master's or PhD qualification
• not in arrears on undergraduate loans or found to be 'unfit' for student support.

Residency requirements

You need to meet certain residency criteria to qualify for PGML from Student Finance England/Student Finance Wales, which are:

• you're a UK national, or have settled status (no restrictions on how long you can stay in the UK), and
• you normally live in England (or Wales), and did not move there just to study, and
• you’ve been living in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for three years before starting your course.

Individuals may be eligible if they have a residency status of refugee, humanitarian protection, EU settled or pre-settled status. For more information use the student finance nationality and residency checker. 

If you already have a postgraduate qualification

If your qualification is at a lower level than a master's (so for example, a PGcert, LPC or PGDip) you'll be eligible for the PGML as long as you register on a full master's course and don't apply for Prior Certificated Learning or Accredited Learning.

If you have a master's or PhD qualification from anywhere in the world, you won't be entitled to the PGML.

As long as you have not achieved a qualification at master's or PhD level, you'll still be entitled.

Changing courses or repeating a year

As long as you're transferring to another eligible master's course, any PGML you have outstanding will transfer with you.

PGML's aren't available for a repeat year. If, however, you withdraw from your master's course due to compelling personal reasons without achieving a master's award, you may be able to get a second PGML if you start a new master's course in future.

The course must be a standalone master's course. This can be a taught or research master's (MRes). You must register for the full 180 credits in order to receive the loan. Prior Certificated or Accredited learning cannot be used to reduce the number of credits taken.

Student Finance England

The course must be:

• a full-time course lasting one or two academic years
• a part-time course which it is ordinarily possible to complete in no more than twice the duration of its one or two academic year full-time equivalent.
• a part-time course lasting up to three years which has no full-time equivalent course
• not an integrated master's such as MEng or MPlan, and funded as part of an undergraduate course.

If the course is studied as a distance-learning course, you must be a student residing in England.

View a list of eligible courses for 2025-26 (PDF).

Student Finance Wales

The course must be:

• a full-time course lasting one or two academic years
• a part-time course lasting two, three of four academic years.

Postgraduate research courses

You can apply for a loan to study a research course provided it awards a master's degree and doesn't last longer than two years full time. This may potentially include some MPhil courses, but won't cover PhD degrees.

Courses which aren't eligible for the PGML

• Postgraduate Certificates (PG Cert) such as PGCEs
• Postgraduate Diplomas (PGDip)
• PhDs are excluded but are available under the following Postgraduate Doctoral Loans (PGDLs) scheme for students from England and Wales.

MPhils

If you're studying an MPhil as part of a standalone qualification you should be eligible for a Postgraduate Master's Loan (PGML) from Student Finance, as described above.

If you're only registering for an MPhil in the initial stage of a PhD course, you won't qualify for the PGML. You should be eligible for the Postgraduate Doctoral Loans (PGDLs) instead.

PhDs

Postgraduate Doctoral Loans (PGDLs) are available from Student Finance England and Wales if you wish to study a PhD course. PhD students under 60 can access a loan of up to £30,301 from Student Finance England/ £29,130 from Student Finance Wales in total for PhD courses lasting between three to eight years. The loan is spread evenly over each year of the course.

The PGDLs work in the same way as the Postgraduate Master's Loans outlined above. It's important to be aware that they won't cover the costs of both tuition fees and living expenses, so you'll need additional funding to cover those costs.

You can find out more by reading the government's PGDL information.

You should apply to the funding body for where you usually reside rather than your nationality. If you're Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish, but normally live in England not just for the purpose of study, you should apply to Student Finance England. If you have moved to England solely for the purposes of studying a master's, you should apply to your home funding body.

Student Finance Northern Ireland and Student Awards Agency Scotland do not currently offer doctoral loans to students undertaking PhDs in England. Students from British Crown Dependencies should contact their relevant student funding body to discuss potential entitlement.

Applications for the 2025/26 academic year will open in summer 2025. The quickest and easiest way to apply will be online. Visit Student Finance England or Student Finance Wales for more information. You don't need to have accepted a place on a course to apply, and can update the course and university details later if you need to.

Evidence

If you're a UK student you can provide your valid UK passport details to confirm your identity, and won't need to send any documents. So for most students the application process should be quick and easy.

You'll need to provide an address history for the last three years and your National Insurance number.

Next steps

Once Student Finance have assessed the application, they will send you a letter confirming how much postgraduate loan/finance you'll get and the payment dates.

The Student Loans Company will pay the loan in instalments into your bank account. You can choose to use the money for tuition fees and/or living expenses.

How the loan/finance is paid will depend on the number of years of the course and whether you're studying part time or full time.

One-year course

The PGML and PGDL are paid in three instalments (33%, 33% and 34%).

• The first instalment will be paid shortly after the start of the first term when UWE Bristol has confirmed your registration on the course.
• The second and third instalment will be paid at the start of terms 2 and 3.

18-month course

If your full-time course is 18 months long you'll receive 50% of the PGL in each academic year paid over three instalments.

Part-time master's courses

You must complete your master's within four years.

The PGML/finance of £12,858 (Student Finance England) or £19,255 (Student Finance Wales) will be divided equally over the ordinary number of years of the course and paid in three equal instalments in each year.

Part-time PhDs

The £30,301 from Student Finance England/£29,130 from Student Finance Wales will be split equally over the number of years of the course duration (3 to 8 years) and paid in three instalments in each academic year.

• The Postgraduate Master's Loan (PGML) and Postgraduate Doctoral Loans (PGDL) are to be repaid concurrently with undergraduate loans.
• The repayment rate on postgraduate loans will be 6% of income above £21,000 per year. The repayment rate on undergraduate loans is 9% of income above £27,295 (if you commenced your undergraduate course between 2012 and 2022) or £25,000 (if you commenced your undergraduate course after 1 August 2023) per year.
• The interest rate will usually be inflation rate (or Retail Price index) + 3%.
• During periods of high interest rates the government will apply an interest cap.
• Repayments are due from the April after you complete your course.
• Any balance outstanding after 30 years will be written off.

Below is a table that models the concurrent repayment of undergraduate and postgraduate loans linked to the level of your post-study earnings.

If you have student loans from your undergraduate study, you'll need to add the monthly repayments together to work out your total loan repayments. The amount you repay on your undergraduate loans will depend on when you started your undergraduate course. See the government Student Finance page to determine which plan you are on.

Gross taxable income	Net monthly wage	Monthly repayments UG loans – plan 2* (9% over £27,295)	Monthly repayments PG loans (6% over £21,000)	Total monthly repayment
£20,000	£1,493	£0	£0	£0
£26,000	£1,853	£0	£25	£32.50
£31,000	£2,153	£28	£50	£95
£36,000	£2,453	£65	£75	£157.50
£41,000	£2,753	£103	£100	£220
£46,000	£3,053	£140	£125	£282.50
£56,000	£3,586	£215	£175	£390

*Monthly repayments UG loans – Plan 2: Includes undergraduate courses commencing between September 2012 and August 2023.

Please visit the following websites for more information:

• Student Finance England (for English resident students)
• Student Finance Wales (for Welsh students)
• Student Awards Agency for Scotland – full-time Scottish students
• Student Finance NI (for Northern Irish students)

Some British Crown Dependencies have their own equivalent postgraduate loan schemes for students who want to study in England. Please contact the relevant student funding body to discuss your potential entitlement.