Postgraduate Doctoral Loan

Award details

Students starting a postgraduate doctoral degree in 2022-23 can apply for a loan of up to £27,892 to help fund tuition fees and living costs.

What is the Postgraduate Doctoral Student Loan?

Students can apply for a non-means tested loan of up to £27,892 for the full length of the course.

For example, if you are studying full-time over four years and apply for the maximum loan amount of £27,892 then your payments would be £6,973 in each academic year.

The Postgraduate Doctoral loan is administered by Student Finance England (SFE).

You can apply in any year of your course, however you may not get the maximum loan amount if applying after your first year.

Please be aware that the Postgraduate Doctoral Loan is intended to be a contribution towards the cost of studying a Doctoral degree. The funds provided by the loan will not cover the full costs of study, and students will need to make adequate additional provision to ensure they can fund their studies.

Award value

• Up to £25,000

Eligibility criteria

Am I eligible?

To be able to apply for a Doctoral loan you must:

• be aged 59 or under on the start date of your course

• not already hold a PhD or equivalent qualification

• not be receiving a Research Council studentship

Most students pursuing PhD study within a Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP), Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) or Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) will therefore be ineligible, since they are often funded by a full Research Council studentship.

You can apply for the Postgraduate Doctoral Loan if all of the following are true:

• you are a UK national or Irish citizen or have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme or indefinite leave to remain so there are no restrictions on how long you can stay
• you normally live in England
• you have been living in the UK, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or Ireland for 3 continuous years before the first day of your course, apart from temporary absences such as going on holiday

Students may also qualify under other residency criteria. For more information about nationality, residence and your eligibility, see the government's Postgraduate Doctoral Loan eligibility pages.

You may also be able to apply for a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan if you are:

• a member of the Armed Forces, or a relative of someone in the Armed Forces and studying on a distance learning course at a UK institution whilst they are posted abroad;

• a refugee, or a relative of one;

• under Humanitarian Protection, or a relative of someone under Humanitarian Protection;

• 18 or over and have lived in the UK for at least 20 years or at least half their life,

• a migrant worker from the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Lichtenstein, or a family member of one with settled of pre-settled status

• the child of a Swiss national, or the child of a Turkish worker.

Is my chosen course eligible?

To receive a Doctoral loan, your course must:

• be full standalone Doctoral course and not a ‘top up’ from a lower-level qualification

• last between 3 to 8 academic years

• have started on or after 1 August 2018

• be provided by a UK university

The course can be full-time or part-time, taught or research-based or a combination of both.

It can also be distance learning but only if you are living in England on the first day of the academic year and stay living within the UK for the full duration of the course.

You can apply for a loan if your doctoral programme includes an integrated master’s degree (even if you already have a master’s degree). However, you must initially register for the full doctoral degree.

Examples of postgraduate doctoral qualifications include:

• PhD / DPhil (Doctor of Philosophy)

• EdD (Doctor of Education)

• EngD (Doctor of Engineering)

Award conditions

Repaying your student loan

Repayments start the April after you complete your course and you will only repay your student loan when your income is over a threshold amount for your repayment plan.

More details about the different repayment plans can be found here.

Each plan has a threshold for your weekly or monthly income. You repay:

• 9% of the amount you earn over the threshold for plans 1, 2 and 4

• 6% of the amount you earn over the threshold for the Postgraduate Loan

You do not pay anything back if your income is under the threshold.

Interest starts being added to your loan from when you get your first payment.

Find more details on how repayments will work, and what you can expect from the SLC.

What if I need to interrupt or withdraw from my course?

A change in a student’s circumstances can affect your eligibility.

You should complete and return a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan Change of Circumstances form as soon as possible. This can be downloaded from your online student finance account.

If a change to your details results in your being overpaid, you will need to repay any money you are not entitled to. In this case, the repayment threshold will not apply and you might have to repay the amount you have been overpaid earlier.

Where can I get more information?

To find out more about the scheme, please contact the Student Funding Office.

Student Finance England also have a handy guide and video.

Application process

How do I apply?

Applications for the Postgraduate Doctoral Loan will be available in the summer.

Students only need to apply once for the Postgraduate Doctoral Loan as the application and funding is for the duration of the course. If you are studying over three or more academic years, you will get a letter each year confirming your payments for the upcoming academic year.

Online application

The quickest way to apply for a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan is online

If you have applied for student finance in the past, you should use your existing login information.

When you register you’ll be given a unique Customer Reference Number and be asked to create a password and secret answer.

The first time you apply you’ll be asked for proof of their identity. You can do this by providing valid UK passport details on the application. If you don’t have a UK passport, you may have to send evidence, such as a non-UK passport or a UK birth or adoption certificate.

Paper application form

If you are unable to apply online, you can download a paper application form.

It is useful to download the application notes with the application form to prevent any missing information or evidence which may cause delays.

Application deadline: Students should apply for finance as soon as soon as possible once applications are open. They must apply no more than nine months after the first day of the last academic year of their course.

Applications take between 6-8 weeks to be assessed by student finance, we recommend all students make their applications as soon as possible in order to have all funding in place by the start of term.

Once your application has been assessed you will receive an entitlement letter - please make sure all amounts are as you requested.

You can apply online when the application service opens in the summer. You should apply as early as possible to make sure your loan is ready for the start of your course.

Click on the apply button above to find out more and apply.

Contact details

Student Finance England Postgraduate Loan team

• Telephone: 0300 100 0031
• Textphone: 0300 100 0622
• Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm

Funding provider

Student Finance England

Selection process

How and when do I receive my loan?

Payments are made to your bank account in three equal instalments over the course of the academic year (usually September, January and April).

Once you have fully enrolled at King’s the Student Funding Office will confirm your registration to SFE which will trigger the release of the first instalment to you.

The total loan will be divided equally across each year(s) of your course.

You must have a UK bank or building society account in your own name.

Please contact the Credit Control Department at King’s to inform them that you are receiving the loan. They will reschedule your tuition fee payments into three equal instalments in line with your loan instalments.

Disclaimer

The College has tried to give students an early opportunity to begin their research of student funding. Although every effort has been made to ensure that information provided is both helpful to prospective candidates and accurate at the time of its publication, it is possible that some information may be outdated or superseded before the start of the 2022-22 academic year.