Is it true financial aid for students' living expenses is only about 4k in the UK, I thought it was about 12k?

Question

Is it true financial aid for students' living expenses is only about 4k in the UK, I thought it was about 12k?

Answer 1

It sounds realistic at £4,000.  As a pensioner, I am on less than £6,000 a year, which has to cover everything.

Answer 2

Mark has pretty much answered your question. The 12k you might have heard of is for postgraduate study; the stipend you get (if you have funding from a research council for example) is usually around this amount, I think the minimum this year is just under 13k.

Answer 3

LOL - nope that's the salary you get when you graduate.

Answer 4

The total student support package, what the US and some others call financial aid, includes:

(Studying in England, Wales or Northern Ireland):

Support for Living Costs:

Maximum of £4,510 ($8,461) for students outside London, or a maximum of £5,565 ($10,440) for students studying inside the London region of England.

Loan for Tuition Fees:  Ã‚£3,100 ($5,812)

Total Package:  Ã‚£7,610 ($14,277) or £8,665 ($16,256)

However British students tend not to include the tuition fee loan, talking only about the living costs.  The amount given for living costs is more if a person studies in London region of England, as it is more expensive than the rest of the UK.

People who have lived in Scotland for at least 3 years do not have to pay tuition fees if they go to a Scottish university.  If they choose to go to a university in one of the other 3 home-nations then the Scottish taxpayer covers the amount of tuition they would pay a Scottish University (£1,100 = $2,063) but the student has to take a loan for the rest.  I think Wales might have a similar arrangement for people who live there.

It's pretty complicated because the amount you get is based on things like your parents income level.  In theory everybody should get around the same amount, but students from families with low incomes receive more of the money as a non-repayable grant rather than a loan. There's also something called the 'family contribution' which basically means that the government works out how much of a student's living costs should be paid directly by their parents, and reduces the amount of loan/grant accordingly.  Legally a student can sue their parents for this money, but in the whole of the UK I've only ever heard of one student actually taking them to court:  In my experience most students just don't ask for it.