If your course starts on or after 1 August 2025, the Master’s Loan provides up to £12,858 for eligible taught Masters degree (MA/MSc/LLM), MBA or Masters by Research (MRes) programmes at Edge Hill University. If your course lasts for more than a year, the loan will be divided equally across each year of your course.

Applying credits to your application in the form of Recognised Prior Learning (RPL) will result in your application for a Postgraduate Master’s loan being cancelled as you will no longer meet the eligibility criteria for the loan

The loan will be paid directly into your UK bank account in three instalments across each academic year. The first instalment will typically follow your course start date (subject to confirmation of enrolment). The second and third instalments can be expected after four months and seven months of study respectively. They will typically be paid on the last Wednesday of the month.

*Please note, the Master’s Loan does not apply to students studying for a postgraduate certificate or postgraduate diploma.

The Government is offering Doctoral Loans worth up to £30,301 for eligible PhD and Professional Doctorate students embarking on research programmes, if your course starts on or after 1 August 2025.

To be eligible, you must:

• be 59 or under,
• not already hold qualifications at Doctorate level, and,
• not be receiving Research Council funding.

Repayments of your Postgraduate and Doctoral Loans start from the April after you graduate. This is subject to you earning above the current repayment threshold of £21,000 a year, from that date.
How much you repay depends on your income – the amount you earn (including things like bonuses and overtime) before tax and other deductions.

You’ll repay a percentage of your income over the income ‘threshold’ for your type of loan, depending on how often you get paid.

The earliest you’ll start repaying is:

• the April after you leave your course
• the April 4 years after the course started if you’re studying part-time and your course is longer than 4 years

Your repayments automatically stop if either:

• you stop working
• your income goes below the threshold

Find further information on repaying loans on the GOV.UK website

Research Council grants

Research Councils are the main public investors in research in the UK. As such, they are a potential source of funding for postgraduate study.

Further information about Research Council Grants is available on the UK Research and Innovation website and Prospects website.

Charity and trust funding

Several charities, foundations and trusts offer limited funding to postgraduate students. Typically, you will need to comply with specific criteria. Such awards are often available to students from lower income families or those students who have achieved academic excellence. Funding from charities and trusts is unlikely to cover your course fees and expenses in their entirety but may help towards your overall costs.

Turn2us’ Search for Grants is a useful starting point to identify potential sources of funding. Alternatively, you can consult publications such as the Educational Grants Directory, Charities Digest, Grants Register, or Directory of Grant Making Trusts to find out more.

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 to be confirmed by 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.