Thinking of applying for a Master’s? Here are some things to consider when thinking about financing the degree.
Many students reach their final year of undergraduate and decide that further study is in order. Others may have taken a hiatus from academia and are jumping back in at a later stage.
No matter where you are in your academic journey, finances always appear as a source of stress. Here are our top tips to consider for financing your potential Master’s degree, from loans to alternative funding sources.
Deciding on a Master’s course
The first step in your journey to a Master’s is selecting the appropriate course for you. It is worth considering the outcome of completing the Master’s: whether you want it to help you move into a vocational profession, or whether it’s to hone a specific skill or talent such as Music, Art or Filmmaking.
Some careers such as teaching, medicine and nursing, and law can offer additional help with funding. Some law firms offer support and funding, which will help you take your next steps to becoming a lawyer.
Deciding on your intended outcomes before applying to a course is important. It’s a financial investment in yourself, so think about what you’d like to gain!
Financing your course in the UK
Student Finance England (or the Student Loans Company) currently offers a loan of up to £11,570 for Master’s students. However, this only goes towards paying your course fees. Sadly bid the days of a student maintenance loan goodbye as a postgraduate!
It’s important to note that these loans are only available to students who do not already have a Master’s qualification (or higher). You can’t just go around collecting degrees like Pokémon, apparently.
The loan might cover the cost of your full course, but it is course and university-specific. For example, a Computer Science MSc at UCL currently costs £16,500 for a full-time one-year course. The student loan would not fully cover the cost of this. It would, however, cover a Newspaper Journalism MA at City University, which currently costs £10,820. A Master’s in Art Psychotherapy at Goldsmith’s comes in at a lesser price at £8,990. You can choose how much you wish to borrow from the loans company. You can still borrow the full amount of £11,570 even if your course costs less than this.
It is worth keeping in mind the maximum loan you can take to cover the course fees as this might influence where you choose to study a Master’s.
Alternative funding ideas
If you already have any kind of postgraduate qualification, you will need to fund the Master’s yourself. But there are ways to support yourself during the course.
Your university or institution will have a team to offer advice about funding the course, they might even have scholarships and bursaries to help particular students. But there are also plenty of online resources to offer advice.
One such resource is the Alternative Guide to Postgraduate Funding. This extensive guide lists hundreds of grants and loans available to potential postgraduates. It might seem like a major effort scrolling through all the grants and bursaries available, but you’re bound to find some funding options which will help your studies. You can access it by paying a flat fee or your university might have subscribed. An individual subscription costs just £14.99 to access the guide for 3 months. It costs £24.99 for a 12-month subscription. If you are accessing the guide via a subscribing university, the university will be able to provide you with log-in details if you email them.
There is also the option of doing a Master’s part-time rather than full-time and supporting yourself through other means of work. Many students manage undertaking a Master’s alongside a job, although this might be hard to manage if your course is particularly intensive.
All of these factors are important to consider during the application process. As we said, a Master’s degree is an investment in yourself, your career and your academic journey, so make it count!