Artist's Resource Pack

The funding for higher education is complicated, but there is lots of support to help you find your way through.

There are three main costs to higher education study:

• the fees you need to pay to your college or university in order to go on the course
• your living and studying costs – your rent, food costs, books and so on
• any disability-related costs you might have linked to your study – these will be covered by the Disabled Student Allowance (DSA). To go straight to the DSA part of this site, following this link.
  
  

To study at higher education level, you will probably need a student loan.

To get a student loan, you apply to your local authority. They work out how much they will pay, how much your parents or partner should pay, what grants you might get and how much your loan should be.

If you are over 25, or have a child, or are married, or have supported yourself for the last three years, then they see you as independent and don’t involve your parents.

If you are independent or your parents or partners income is low, you might get a Maintenance Grant and/or a Special Support Grant. These do not have to be paid back like your student loan.

Student loans do not have to be paid back straight away. They only need to be paid back once your course has finished and once you are earning more than £15,000 a year (not including income from disability benefits). They often make special arrangements for disabled people, delaying or extending repayments. If you are not able to work due to a disability, then the loan can be cancelled and you will not owe anything.

You can find out more from Skill’s information sheet Funding for Disabled Students in Higher Education. You can get to the information sheets by following this link. This will take you out of the artist’s resource site and straight to the Skill site and their list of information sheets (www.skill.org.uk/info/infosheets.asp)

If you want to talk to someone directly, they have a freephone helpline that is run twice a week:
on Tuesdays between 11.30 am and 1.30 pm
on Thursdays between 1.30 pm and 3.30 pm

Phone them on freephone 0800 328 5050, or on 020 7657 2337 (this is not a freephone number) or textphone 0800 068 2422.

You can email advisers on info@skill.org.uk.

You can also get information from the Department of Education and Skills on the support they offer to Higher Education students. This will take you out of the artist’s resource site and straight to the DFES site. www.dfes.gov.uk/studentsupport/.
 
Directgov, the governement’s own website, also has information on student Finance. This will take you out of the artist’s resource site and straight to the student finance part of the Directgov site (click here)