Student Wellbeing Services
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UK Students - Government Undergraduate Funding
Part time costs and student funding (Government)
2012 Tution Fee Costs
The maximum tution fee loan is £6,750.00 and the amount you receive depends on the cost of your tution fees and not your household income. The tution fee loan is paid directly to your University.
How the course intensity is worked out
Course intensity is how long it takes to complete your part-time course compared to the equivalent full-time course. So, if your course takes six years to complete and the full-time equivalent takes three, your course intensity will be 50%.
Course intensity is worked out by taking the number of part-time units (such as credits, credit points or modules) you'll be studying in the academic year and dividing it by the number of units that you'd complete in one academic year if you were studding your course full time. The result is then multiplied by 100 to give the course intesity as a percentage.
So, the formula to work this out is as follows:
(Part-time units) divided by (full-time units) x 100 = your course intensity as a percentage (%)
You must complete your part-time course in no more than four times the amount of time it would take to complete your course if you were studying full time (up to a maximum of 16 years).
2012 Living Costs
Unfortunately part-time students can not apply for a maintenance loan and maintenance grant.
For further details for part-time student finance click here.
Part time costs and student funding (University Funding)
Living Costs - Potential award from Access to Learning Fund
For part-time students who started their courses before 1st September 2012:
Providing you are studying on a part time course (where there is a full time degree equivalent) and doing an average of 50% of the full time equivalent over the period of your study you can apply to the University Access to Learning Fund. If you are 50% part time this means you would study part one over 2 years rather than the full time period of 1 year.
For new students who start part-time courses on or after 1st September 2012:
These students are allowed to study at a minimum rate of 25% FTE per academic year rather than 50% FTE.
If you qualify for help awards are given in the form of a grant. For further information please: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/sbs/funding/alf.htm
Other University Awards
To see other awards which may be available please check the website below: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/funding
State Benefits
Your right to study while claiming as unemployed depends on whether you are participating in the New Deal or not.
For those not on the New Deal if you are between 19 and 59 you can study and still qualify for job seekers allowance (JSA), provided the course is part time (if the course is during working hours) and it is accepted that you are "available for and actively seeking work." As part of the JSA agreement you will be required to immediately give up the course or re-arrange it (if possible) outside normal working hours.
Students also have to complete a questionnaire when claiming 'unemployment' benefit to test their commitment to a course. If you come over as too committed this may affect benefit as it suggests your availability for work is questionable. You should stress that private study is done outside working hours and that missed classes (e.g. to attend job interviews) can be caught up on appropriately.
Part time student course grants will not be taken into account for the purpose of any means tested benefit calculation.
