Student loans in Northern Ireland

Last updated 09 Jan 2020

Student loans in Northern Ireland are handled by >Student Finance NI.

As well as repayable tuition fees and maintenance loans, students in Northern Ireland can apply for un-repayable Maintenance Grants, Special Support Grants, Travel Grants and bursaries/scholarships. Find out more here.

If you are studying at a college or university in the Republic of Ireland you won’t pay any tuition fees. Instead, you will have to pay a student contribution charge to your university or college. If you started your course on or after 1st September 2013 to help cover the student contribution charge you can apply for a Student Contribution Loan. If you started your course before 1st September 2013 The student contribution charge will be paid by your ELB on receipt of an invoice from your university or college.

Student loans in Northern Ireland are repaid slightly differently to in England and Wales (the same as Scotland): when you earn more than the minimum income threshold (£17,335 a year in 2015) you will repay 9% of anything over this amount. If your income is below £17,335 or drops below that amount, you will not have to make repayments.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia.