PhD Loans for Doctoral Students – A Guide for 2023

A UK PhD loan is worth up to £28,673 from Student Finance England or £28,395 from Student Finance Wales. The money only needs to be paid back when you earn over £21,000 a year.

You can borrow a PhD loan of up to £28,673 from Student Finance England for 2023-24 study or £28,395 from Student Finance Wales. All of the money is paid directly to your bank account. You can use it for PhD fees, research expenses, maintenance or other costs.

Doctoral loans aren't based on household income or means tested, so the amount you can borrow isn't affected by your income or savings.

It's up to you to decide how much you want to borrow (up to the maximum, of course). This amount will then be spread evenly across your PhD, in three instalments per academic year.

Below we've answered a selection of commonly asked questions about PhD loan amounts.

You can apply for a PhD student loan if you're a UK national and:

• You've lived in the UK for at least three years (not including time abroad for short-term travel or study)
• You are ordinarily resident in England or Wales (you don't just live there to study)
• You will be aged under 60 (59 or under) on the first day of the first academic year of your PhD (usually 1 September for degrees beginning in the autumn)
• You don't already have a PhD or other doctorate
• You won't be receiving UKRI funding for your PhD (and haven't been funded by a Research Council in the past)
• You won't be receiving other UK public funding for your doctorate, such as a Social Work or Educational Psychology bursary
• Your doctorate isn't eligible for NHS funding (if it is, you should apply for this instead)

PhD loans for Scottish and Northern Irish students

UK doctoral loans are currently only offered by Student Finance England and Student Finance Wales. You won't normally be eligible to apply for their support if you are resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Student Finance Northern Ireland and Student Awards Agency Scotland may offer doctoral loans in the future. We'll let you know as soon as that happens.

PhD loans for EU students

You can apply for a UK doctoral loan as an EU student if:

• You began your PhD in the 2020-21 academic year or earlier

or

• You applied to the EU Settlement Scheme before 30 June 2021

EU students who are coming to study in the UK from 2021-22 onwards will count as international students (see below).

PhD loans for Irish students

Irish students can still apply for a UK PhD loan to study in either England or Wales. This right is guaranteed by the Common Travel Area and isn't affected by Brexit.

PhD loans for international students

International (non-UK) students aren't normally eligible for UK doctoral loans, but an exception may apply if:

• You have settled status in the UK
• You are an EU national and have applied to the UK's EU Settlement Scheme (see above)
• You are an Irish national (see above)
• You or a family member have been granted refugee status or humanitarian protection in the UK
• You are 18 or over and have lived in the UK for at least 20 years and / or half of your life

If you aren't sure whether you qualify for UK student finance, check advice from the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA).

Frequently asked questions

We've answered several questions about student eligibility for doctoral loans, covering residency criteria and more.

The PhD loan is available for all types of research doctorate, in any subject. This includes academic doctorates such as a PhD and DPhil, as well as professional doctorates such as a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) or EdD (Doctor of Education).

However, you can't get a doctoral loan for a PhD by publication (you must be funding a programme of research and / or study).

UK students can study at any UK university. Eligible students who normally live outside the UK can use the doctoral loan to study at any English or Welsh university.

You can study full time or part time provided your PhD lasts between 3 and 8 years. You will be able to choose from different course lengths when you apply. These will be set by your university based on the intended submission date for your thesis.

Your course must have started on or after August 2018.

Frequently asked questions

Below you can find the answers to a selection of questions about PhD loan course eligibility.

PhD loan applications are now open for doctorates beginning in 2023-24 (or earlier).

Make sure you apply to the correct student finance provider. This will be:

• Student Finance England for English-resident students or Irish students coming to study in England
• Student Finance Wales for Welsh-resident students or Irish students coming to study in Wales

If you have an existing student finance account and Customer Reference Number (CRN) you should use this to apply for your PhD loan. The application system will also ask for details about your PhD (or other doctoral degree), residency status and how much you want to borrow.

The application deadline is fairly relaxed – you have to apply within nine months of the first day of the final academic year of your doctorate. Depending on when you start your PhD during the year, there are four possible ‘first days’, which you can see in the table below.

As an example, if you start a three-year PhD on 22 October 2023, you should apply for a doctoral loan before 31 May 2026.

Remember though, that applying later in your PhD could limit the maximum amount you can borrow (you can't receive more than £12,167 in a single academic year).

Frequently asked questions

If you have any further questions about applying for a PhD loan, hopefully the FAQs below will cover them.

Doctoral loan repayments are income contingent. You only repay your PhD loan when you are earning over £21,000 a year (£1,750 a month or £404 a week) and you only repay 6% of what you earn over that threshold.

You'll begin repayments in the first April after you leave your course or in the April four years after your PhD starts (whichever is sooner). This means that you can be eligible to start repaying the doctoral loan during your PhD, but only if you're earning enough.

How you repay depends on your employment status:

• If you are employed in the UK HMRC will automatically deduct repayments from your salary on behalf of the Student Loans Company. This will usually happen monthly.
• If you are self-employed you will need to make repayments to HMRC as part of your annual tax return.
• If you are working outside the UK you will need to make repayment arrangements with the Student Loans Company. You should do this before you leave the UK.
• If you are unemployed you won't make repayments. The same applies if you are ever earning less than £21,000 a year.

You may also need to repay other student loans along wth your PhD loan:

• PhD and Masters loan repayments are combined – you will make one repayment of 6% of your income over £21,000 towards a single postgraduate loan debt
• All postgraduate loan repayments are concurrent with those for undergraduate loans – you will repay 6% of your income over £21,000 towards your Masters and / or PhD loan and 9% of your income over £26,575 towards your undergraduate loan

Interest is charged on a PhD loan at the same rate as Masters loans: RPI (the Retail Prices Index) +3%. As of August 2023, the rate is 7.1%, but this changes every year.

Any remaining PhD loan debt (including interest) is cancelled after 30 years from the point at which you begin repayments.

Frequently asked questions

We've answered a few more FAQs about PhD loan repayments below.

Wales offers its own PhD loan for Welsh-resident UK students. You can borrow up to £28,395 for a degree that begins in 2023-24.

Welsh PhD loans work the same way as English PhD loans. The only difference is that you should apply to Student Finance Wales, not Student Finance England.

Scotland and Northern Ireland don't offer a doctoral loan yet.

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