This guide outlines the tuition fees and financial support arrangements for UK students joining the MBChB Medicine and MBChB Medicine with Foundation Year programmes at Edge Hill University between August 2023 and July 2024.
We can help explain what student funding you may be entitled to receive and how to apply for it.
Introduction
Please note, the information on these pages may be subject to change. If you are joining any other full-time undergraduate programme in academic year 2023/24, you should refer to our money matters guide for full-time undergraduate students (excluding Medicine).
Exceptions may apply if you have enrolled on any previous higher education study (at level 4 or level 5), even if you didn’t achieve a qualification, or if the course you are joining at Edge Hill University is of an equivalent or lower level to a qualification you already hold.
EU/EEA and Swiss students who have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, as well as Irish nationals, may be eligible for the UK tuition fee rate and associated financial support. Irish nationals can ordinarily apply to Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI). Please see our dedicated guide to EU student finance for further information.
Tuition fees
If you are a prospective UK student joining MBChB Medicine or MBChB Medicine with Foundation Year at Edge Hill University in September 2023, the tuition fee will be £9,250 a year.
The University may administer a small inflationary rise in tuition fees, in line with Government policy, in subsequent academic years as you progress through the course.
Eligible students can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan to cover the cost of the course fees for the first four years of study. For the final year of MBChB Medicine and the final two years of the MBChB Medicine with Foundation Year, course fees are paid in full by the relevant funding agency.
Exceptions to your eligibility for a Tuition Fee Loan may apply if you have enrolled on any previous higher education study (at level 4 or level 5), even if you didn’t achieve a qualification, or if the MBChB is of an equivalent or lower level to a qualification you already hold.
Loans
Tuition Fee Loans
You will be able to borrow the full cost of your tuition fee from the Government in the form of a Tuition Fee Loan for the first four years of study (subject to eligibility).
Tuition fees for the final year of the MBChB Medicine and the final two years of the MBChB Medicine with Foundation Year are currently paid in full by the relevant funding agency. This will be The National Health Service (NHS) for students from England and Wales, The Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) for students from Scotland, and The Department of Health (DoH) for students from Northern Ireland.
MBChB Medicine
- Years 1-4: Tuition Fee Loan for the first four years of study.
- Year 5: Course fees paid in full by the relevant agency.
MBChB Medicine with Foundation Year
- Years 1-4: Tuition Fee Loan for the Foundation Year plus the first three years of the MBChB Medicine.
- Years 5-6: Course fees paid in full by the relevant funding agency.
Maintenance Loans
- Available to help with living costs such as food, accommodation and travel.
- The amount of Maintenance Loan you can apply for is determined by your household income, where you are going to live while you are studying, and additional criteria.
- Usually paid in three instalments, directly to your bank or building society account.
Maintenance Loans are subject to different financial arrangements and eligibility criteria depending on whether you are domiciled in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
If you are domiciled in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, you should refer to the website of the relevant funding body for loan amounts and eligibility criteria.
You may be eligible for an increased Maintenance Loan if you meet any of the following criteria:
- You are a lone parent who is responsible for a child or a young person aged under 20 who is a member of your household and who is in full-time education.
- You are a lone foster parent of a child or young person aged under 20.
- You have a partner who is also a full-time student and one or both of you are responsible for a child or young person aged under 20 who is in full-time non-advanced education.
- You have a disability and qualify for a Disability Premium or Severe Disability Premium.
- You have been treated as incapable of work for a continuous period of at least 28 weeks (two or more periods of incapacity separated by a break of no more than eight weeks count as one continuous period).
- You are deaf and qualify for Disabled Students’ Allowances.
- You are waiting to go back to a course having taken approved time out because of an illness or caring responsibility that has now come to an end for a period not exceeding one year.
- You are entitled to Personal Independence Payment, Armed Forces Independence Payment or Disability Living Allowance.
- You are entitled to housing benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit.
For those students entitled to benefits who qualify for an increased Maintenance Loan, the Maintenance Loan will consist of a special support element which will be disregarded as student income when calculating benefits. The maximum special support element of a Maintenance Loan will be £4,221 of the overall maximum Maintenance Loan amount. There is no special support element within the standard Maintenance Loan.
Students aged 60 or over on the first day of the first year of their course may be entitled to a Maintenance Loan up to a maximum of £4,221 a year.
View Maintenance Loan tables for full-time studentsLoan repayments
You will not have to start repaying the total of your student loans until the April after you have completed your course and are earning above a certain threshold amount. The Government has announced that repayment thresholds for students joining undergraduate degrees in academic year 2023/24 will be £25,000 a year.
The amount you repay will be linked to your income. Each year you will be expected to repay 9% of your income that is above the repayment threshold. So, for example, if your salary is £30,000 a year, with a repayment threshold of £25,000 a year, the 9% repayment would only apply to £5,000, meaning you would repay around £37.50 a month. If your income falls below the repayment threshold, for any reason, you will not have to make repayments until your income rises above this threshold again.
The Government will typically apply interest on your student loans at inflation (Retail Price Index – RPI) plus 3%, while you are studying, and up until the April you are due to start repaying. The interest rate will vary from the April you are due to start repaying, subject to your income level. A Government cap of 7.3% is currently in place until August 2023 on the maximum interest rate that can be applied to most student loans. Further information about student loan repayments is available on GOV.UK.
The Student Loans Company will work with HM Revenue and Customs to collect repayments. They will be taken by your employer and shown on your pay statement. If you are self-employed, the repayments will be collected through the tax self-assessment system. No early repayment charges will be made. Any monies still owed after 40 years will be written off.
If you leave your course early, you will still have to repay your student loans. Leaving a course during term time can result in the overpayment of a Maintenance Loan. In these circumstances, you should contact Student Finance England, or the equivalent funding body, about the option of completing a financial hardship application to move any overpayments to your graduate repayment plan.
Alternative funding
Religious faith may mean taking out student loans and paying the required inflation-based interest is an issue for some students and could be prohibited for religious reasons.
The Government is working towards an alternative Sharia-compliant student finance package for these circumstances. The suggested alternative financial product would result in identical graduate repayments to the current student loan system but would not be interest based.
Further details are awaited from the Government. In the meantime, you may find it useful to contact a local Imam to discuss Sharia-compliant finance if you have any concerns. Alternative sources of funding, while limited, are outlined on our money advice webpages.
Grants
NHS Grant
For the final year of study on MBChB Medicine, and the final two years of study on MBChB Medicine with Foundation Year, students domiciled in England or Wales can apply for a non-means tested NHS Grant of £1,000 a year.
Further details about the NHS Grant can be found at www.gov.uk/nhs-bursaries.
Supplementary grants and allowances
Depending on your circumstances, you may be entitled to additional financial support from the Government, such as Adult Dependants’ Grant, Childcare Grant, Disabled Students’ Allowance and Parents’ Learning Allowance.
- Adult Dependants’ Grant – means-tested support of up to £3,354 a year if you have to care for an adult dependant, who is not your grown-up child, while studying (subject to eligibility).
- Childcare Grant – means-tested support designed to contribute up to 85% towards your childcare costs if you have a dependent child/children in the care of an Ofsted-registered childcare provider while you study. Childcare grants for academic year 2023/24 are worth up to a maximum of £188.90 per week for one child only or up to £323.85 per week for two or more children (subject to eligibility).
- Disabled Students’ Allowance – support tailored to your individual needs if you have a disability or specific learning difficulty. Disabled Students’ Allowances are worth up to £26,291 for eligible students in academic year 2023/24. These allowances are designed to help with the cost of specialist equipment (such as computer software), extra travel costs due to a disability, or other support necessary to enable you to study. You should be aware that £26,291 is the maximum amount and most students get less.
- Parents’ Learning Allowance – means-tested support of up to £1,915 a year if you have children who are wholly or mainly financially dependent on you.
Please note, the above amounts apply to Years 1-4 of MBChB Medicine and MBChB Medicine with Foundation Year. For Year 5 of MBChB Medicine and Years 5-6 of MBChB Medicine with Foundation Year, similar grants are likely to be available but these would be funded by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) instead of student finance and grant amounts may vary.
Bursaries
NHS Bursary
For the final year of study on MBChB Medicine, and the final two years of study on MBChB Medicine with Foundation Year, students domiciled in England, Wales or Northern Ireland may be eligible to apply for a means-tested NHS Bursary.
Further details about the NHS Bursary can be found at www.gov.uk/nhs-bursaries.
Travel expenses for medicine courses
Students studying medicine courses may have to attend clinical placements. Student finance regulations treat these placements as study at a university and assess this as full attendance at the university or college with eligibility for full fees. These students are also eligible to apply for a travel grant.
If the application is means-tested and the student has indicated they are undertaking a placement, Student Finance will issue the claim travel expenses for clinical study (CLEX) form to them. This does not apply to NHS Bursary years.
Scholarships
Edge Hill University offers scholarships to reward excellence from prospective full-time undergraduate students.
- Sports Scholarships, worth up to £1,000 per academic year, reward talent, achievement and dedication in sport and are designed to enhance your sporting performance.
Additional scholarships are available to current students which you can apply for, or be nominated for, once you are enrolled on a full-time undergraduate programme with us (some exclusions may apply).
You can also make the most of your student experience and take advantage of career enhancing opportunities by applying for financial support from our Student Opportunity Fund.
For more information on the full range of scholarships, including eligibility criteria for each award, visit www.edgehill.ac.uk/scholarships.
Student Support Fund
The Student Support Fund provides non-repayable discretionary awards and emergency support to assist students in financial difficulty, who might otherwise be at risk of leaving their courses because of financial hardship.
An application is required, and a means test of your income and certain expenses for the academic year is carried out to determine whether you qualify for an award. If you qualify, you won’t have to pay back the money you receive. This funding may be of particular interest to those in years 5-6 of the MBChB Medicine.
How to apply
Loans and grants
You must have submitted a UCAS application before you can apply for financial support from the Government but you do not need to have a confirmed place on a course. We strongly recommend applying for financial support as early as possible to ensure your application is received and processed in good time.
The funding application process for English-domiciled students is as follows:
- Applications are made online to Student Finance England at www.gov.uk/apply-online-for-student-finance.
- After you have applied for student funding, you will be able to manage your account online.
- If you have withdrawn from a previous course due to compelling personal reasons, you could be eligible to receive an extra year of tuition fee support. You should send evidence of your personal reasons for repeating a year to Student Finance England as soon as you have applied for student funding.
- Once your application has been assessed, you will receive a Student Finance Entitlement Letter outlining the support you have applied for and can expect to receive. The Student Finance Entitlement Letter can also be viewed online. If the financial support outlined in your Student Finance Entitlement Letter is not what you anticipated, you are welcome to contact us for advice. Scroll down for further information on how to contact us.
The funding application process is different if you are a student domiciled in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. You should consult the website of the relevant funding body for further information on the application process you will need to follow:
NHS Bursary and NHS Grant
While you will not need to apply for either an NHS Bursary or NHS Grant as a prospective student, since you will not be eligible for either for your first four years of study, you will need to apply later in the course since the funding is not automatic.
If you only want to apply for tuition fee support from the NHS (and not the means-tested bursary), you should complete the sections relating to non-means-tested funding and the declaration part of the application form.
You can contact the NHS in your region through the following websites:
Scholarships
Further details about Sport Scholarships can be found at www.edgehill.ac.uk/scholarships/applicants/sports.
Previous study
If you have studied all or part of a higher education course before coming to university, your entitlement to student funding may be affected.
- Previous study
If you have studied a higher education course (level 4 or level 5) before, even if you didn’t complete it – you may not get Government tuition fee support for the full length of your course, meaning you may have to pay some or all of the fees yourself. - Equivalent and Lower Qualifications (ELQ)
If the course you take at Edge Hill is of an equivalent or lower level to one you already hold – you may not get Government support for your fees or your living costs.
There are exceptions but, if you think this may affect you, it is important to clarify your situation.
If you have withdrawn from a previous course due to compelling personal reasons, such as illness, mental health, bereavement, pregnancy or a caring responsibility, you could be eligible to receive an extra year of tuition fee support.
If you have left a previous course during an academic term, any overpayment from a previous Maintenance Loan can sometimes be deducted from new Maintenance Loan amounts. Student Finance England and Student Finance Wales may allow some of your overpayment to be deferred, instead of you having to pay it back all at once, if you can provide evidence that not doing so would place you in financial hardship. You will need to complete a Student Financial Hardship Form. Further information is available at media.slc.co.uk/sfe/overpayment/financial-hardship.html.
Please visit our previous study page to find out more about previous study and equivalent and lower qualifications.
Previous study and equivalent and lower qualificationsContact us
If you have any queries about tuition fees or scholarships, or if you have any queries about previous study and the potential impact it may have on your eligibility for financial support, you can email Academic Registry.
- Academic Registry
- Email [email protected] with any tuition fees or previous study queries;
- Email [email protected] with any scholarships queries.
If you have any questions about your eligibility for financial support, or if you wish to receive advice and guidance on applying for funding (including support in completing funding applications), you can get in touch with the Money Advice Team.
- Money Advice Team
- Email: [email protected]
Alternatively, you can contact the Students’ Union Advice and Representation Centre.
- Students’ Union Advice and Representation Centre
- Email: [email protected]
Please note, all advice and guidance provided by the University is subject to any information which you choose to impart to us, about your individual circumstances, being correct.
The advice and guidance you receive will be based upon current eligibility criteria from external organisations, such as the Student Loans Company. However, if any changes are made to this eligibility criteria by an external organisation, the University cannot be held responsible.
All staff will treat any information you share with them in the strictest confidence.
Further information
Our Student Services webpages includes money advice, including useful tips on how to increase your income and reduce your expenses while at university, together with advice about keeping track of your finances and managing your money effectively.
Student finance resources and information, including a popular discussion forum, for English-domiciled students can also be found on The Student Room website.