How much to borrow

American Exchange students

Your loans are handled through your college in the USA.

Summer School students

Summer Schools are NOT eligible for Stafford Loans unless essential to your degree programme.

Degree students

You can borrow up to your Cost of Attendance (CoA) in total. Part of this may be a government subsidised Stafford Loan topped up by further loans. The university may not authorise or certify more than the CoA.

Cost of attendance

Although being in a new city is fun, and should be enjoyed, remember that your loan(s) are for education. Each student is different, but your costs should still be broadly in line with our published CoA. If your CoA needs to be higher, then you must prove and justify this to the Director of Student Recruitment.

Your money has to last the whole educational year. You must plan a budget to cover Fees for the year, plus living costs for the year. Use our Cost of Attendance spreadsheet to see how much you can borrow. Plan each week in school for:

  • Room – Halls or rented room or flat-share
  • Board – Food, electricity, gas
  • Books – including photocopying
  • Personal – ‘reasonable’ pocket money
  • One return flight may also be included

The number of weeks is generally 52 but 40 for undergraduates.

You can open/download the CoA spreadsheet from Download Leaflets and Forms in an Excel spreadsheet and you need Excel 95 or above to read it.

Stafford Loans

Stafford Loans are fixed to a maximum of $20,500 for graduates (of which $8,500 can be subsidised) and for undergraduates the subsidised loans are $3,500 (yr1); $4,500 (yr2); $5,500 (yr3). The level of subsidised and unsubsidised loan is decided by your Expected Family Contribution (EFC), shown on your SAR. More details are on the CoA spreadsheet.

Further/private loans

Further loans can be taken out to top-up the rest of the CoA. Applications for private loans, start with the lender but you must get all the papers from your lender to the university– lenders forget that foreign schools can’t certify electronically.

Signature loan

Graduates can take out a private loan. You cannot borrow more than the rest of the CoA, nor more than you can afford and subject to credit rating. Borrowers may be required to have a co-signer. Interest is charged but repayment is deferred while in school.

ParentPlus loan

Parents of undergraduates can take out a ParentPlus Loan under their name. They cannot borrow more than the rest of the CoA, nor more than they can afford and subject to credit rating. These loans start repayment while you are still in school

Warning: Shop around!
Both of these are private loans at commercial rates. Start with your Stafford lender who might give you a better rate as an existing borrower and the process might be faster. Look at interest rates and charges with different lenders. A lender may also require someone else with a good credit rating as a guarantor or as a co-borrower.

YOUR LOAN CHEQUE(S) MUST PAY FEES FIRST.

ENSURE YOU HAVE BORROWED ENOUGH FOR LIVING COSTS AT THE START OF THE YEAR.

  • Only borrow what you really need
  • You have to repay it
  • Borrowers can be turned down