Student Loans
Home students can apply for a student loan from Student Finance England. How much of this loan you qualify for depends on your status, and takes into account whether you are an independent student, have dependents, and whether you are eligible for any other awards. The loan is also dependent on the number of weeks you spend at university per year.
You should have already applied for your student loan in advance of arriving here, but if you haven’t, you will need to contact your Local Authority who will send you the appropriate paperwork.
You will not need to start paying the loan back until you have left university and are in employment. For more specific information please refer to the Student Finance England website.
NHS Bursaries
For home students, all three years of Physiotherapy and Radiography, years 2, 3 and 4 of the 4-year MBBS course and the 5th year of study of the 5-year MBBS course, the fees are paid by the NHS Bursary Unit. These students are also eligible for a bursary, but like your student loan, this is affected by your personal financial situation. The NHS bursary must be reapplied for on an annual basis. For more information visit the NHS bursary website.
Fees
For all home students on undergraduate courses who are not eligible for a bursary, the fees for the academic year are shown here. A complete breakdown of fees including those for international students and postgraduate students is available from the Student Life Centre.
Student Bank Accounts
It is likely that you will already have a bank account prior to starting at St George’s, but before you automatically upgrade your account with your current bank, take a look at what others are offering. There are many different things you need to consider, not just the freebies! You need to consider things like overdrafts and the location of the bank.
Access to Learning Fund
If all attempts at budgeting fail, you may need to apply for Access to Learning Funds (ALF). ALF is allocated to the medical school by the Government to assist home students in severe and genuine financial difficulty. Only certain students are eligible. ALF is not to be used for the payment of tuition fees, or to make up for a shortfall in assessed parental contribution.
To be eligible, students should have applied for their full entitlement of the student loan. Help will be given in the form of a non-repayable grant from the University. For more information please contact the Student Life Centre.
Postgraduate funding information can be found at: PostgraduateFunding.com, a comprehensive database of grants available to postgraduate students from all over the world.
Please contact Jude O'Brien, Student Finance and Policy Officer (jobrien@sgul.ac.uk or on 0208 725 0962) or Helen Williams, Student Finance Advisor (Hwilliam@sgul.ac.uk or on 0208 266 6303) for further information or if you have any financial difficulties at all during your course.