Postgraduate funding

Master's loans

Master's students under 60 can access funding from student finance as a contribution towards the cost of their study. This is part of the government's long-term commitment to enhance support for postgraduate study.

Student Finance England

Postgraduate Loans (PGLs) of £12,471 are available from Student Finance England to study a master's course in the 2024/25 academic year.

Student Finance Wales

Postgraduate loans of £18,950 are available from Student Finance Wales to study a master's course in the 2024/25 academic year.

View details of the 2024/25 postgraduate funding schemes

Bank loans

High street banks may offer a similar type of loan to support you with further study. You will need to contact individual banks to find out what type of loans they have on offer and whether it would be suitable for your needs. It is important that you check all the terms and conditions and ensure that the repayments are affordable before committing to a bank loan.

Employer sponsorship

You may be able to get paid leave for study, funding for some or all of your tuition fees and other course-related costs from your employer. However, this may only be possible if your course is directly relevant to your work.

Trust funds and grant making charities

There are a number of trusts and charities that make awards to students. Many have very particular qualifying criteria, meaning that very few applicants get awards. The following websites are good places to start looking for funds:

Research council funding

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) brings together the seven disciplinary research councils, which offer funding and support across all academic disciplines. Please note that competition is strong and only a small percentage of candidates are successful.

Find out how to apply for research and innovation funding

Postgraduate Doctoral Loans

Postgraduate Doctoral Loans (PGDLs) are available from Student Finance England and Wales if you wish to study a PhD course. PhD students starting courses in the 2024/25 academic year, aged under 60 can access a loan of up to £29,390 from Student Finance England (up to £28,655 from Student Finance Wales) in total for PhD courses lasting between three to eight years. The loan is spread evenly over each year of the course.

The PhD loans work in the same way as the PGLs outlined above. It is important to be aware that it will not cover the costs of both tuition fees and living expenses, so you will need additional funding to cover those costs.

Further information

Further information on the PhD loan from Student Finance England.
Find out more about the PhD loan from Student Finance Wales.

PGCE and training bursaries (including PGCE – school based)

If you are a UK resident, you may be eligible to apply to student finance for the fee loan and living cost support for full-time programmes in the same way as undergraduates. See the undergraduate funding information to find out more.

If you are an EU student, your eligibility for student finance funding will depend on your residency status. Find out more about EU student undergraduate funding.

If you have children, a disability or an adult dependant, you could be eligible for further support from Student Finance. More details can be found on the Get into Teaching website.

You can use the student finance calculator to estimate the amount of Tuition Fee and Maintenance Loans that may be available to you, as well as any additional support.

Finance for part-time PGCE programmes

Part-time PGCE students will be covered by the funding arrangements for part-time undergraduate students with access to a part time maintenance loan and tuition fee loan. New part-time students already holding a qualification equivalent or higher in level than their PGCE remain eligible for this support. Please see more details of part-time undergraduate funding.

Finance for iPGCE programmes

If you are studying the iPGCE programme, unfortunately these courses do not attract funding from student finance.

Training bursaries for 2024/25

UK students on eligible PGCE courses who are entitled to support under the student finance criteria (who are not employed as a teacher), may be eligible to apply for training bursaries. The amount of bursary will be based on the teaching subject and degree classification. Visit the Get into teaching website for more detailed information and conditions.

How to apply

There will be a link to the application form within the joining instructions which will be sent to you via the Welcome portal over the summer. The bursary is paid in ten instalments from October.

Trainees with degrees from outside the UK

If you hold a degree from outside the UK, please contact UWE Bristol Admissions to help determine your bursary eligibility. You will need to check whether your qualification is comparable to a British bachelor (honours) degree standard. Alternatively, you can find information on the Get into teaching website.

Training scholarships for 2024/25

Trainees in Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Computing and languages (French, German and Spanish only) are able to apply for a teacher training scholarship with the appropriate professional body. Each body sets its own criteria and scholarships are awarded in place of a bursary.

For more information see the Get into teaching website.

Students from Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland

To receive a bursary or scholarship, students from Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland will need to be eligible for financial support from their country’s student finance body. Please contact Student Finance Wales, Student Awards Agency Scotland or Student Finance NI to find out about your eligibility for funding.

Part-time fee waivers

Eligibility criteria

To qualify for a UWE Bristol fee waiver for your postgraduate part-time course, you need to be:

studying at postgraduate level for the first time. This means that you have not already achieved a qualification at the same level as your new course. If you have a master's qualification, you can apply for a waiver for a course at PhD level
considered a UK resident ('home') student for fee purposes, and
registered on a designated part-time postgraduate course that lasts for at least one academic year, and
registered for 80 credits or fewer, and
in receipt of a means-tested benefit on 1 September 2024 (or 1 January 2025 if you are starting your programme in January 2025), and continuously for the previous six months or a care leaver.

If you meet the above criteria, UWE Bristol will consider a waiver of 75% of your tuition fees for the 2024/25 academic year.

If you are eligible to apply for the Postgraduate Loan for master's courses from Student Finance, you will not be entitled to the fee waiver. This rule will allow the Waiver Scheme to support students who have no alternative method for paying for their tuition fees.

Please note: the funding available for fee waivers is limited and demand is usually high. We cannot, therefore, guarantee that every eligible student will be awarded a fee waiver.

Which benefits count?

The relevant benefits for this fee waiver are:

Income Support
Employment and Support Allowance (income-based)
Pension Credit
Jobseeker's Allowance (income-based)
Housing Benefit or Council Tax reduction
Universal Credit

Tax credits do not count as a qualifying benefit for the fee waiver.

How to apply

Care leavers

If you are a care leaver, please email sms@uwe.ac.uk providing evidence of your status. You do not have to complete an application form.

Receiving means-tested benefits

If you receive means-tested benefits and are starting your course in 2023/24, please download the relevant form for you:

Please return the completed application form to us by emailing it to sms@uwe.ac.uk, along with six months annotated bank statements showing receipt of means tested benefits.

Applications for students commencing studies in the 2024/25 academic year will be available from September 2024.

Continuing students

If you are a continuing student who already receives this fee waiver, you will have already been sent an application form by email.

Existing recipients of the fee waiver will remain unaffected up until the completion of their current studies, providing they continue to meet the qualifying criteria outlined below:

Part-time postgraduate students who have been in receipt of a means-tested benefit continuously for at least six months prior to either 1 September 2024 or 1 January 2025 (dependent on your course start date).
Care leavers can now apply for a fee waiver without needing to be in receipt of the qualifying benefits. To qualify, you must have been in local authority care for three months between the ages of 11 to 16 and not returned to live with parents since then. If you meet this criteria, please let us know by emailing sms@uwe.ac.uk.

Student loans and Sharia Law

Due to faith or conscience some students may be deterred from taking out the UK government's student loans, due to the interest payment system.

UK government student finance loans

Student finance postgraduate loans incur interest on repayments set at the Retail Price Index (RPI) + 3%.

Alternative sources of funding

If you do not wish to take out student finance loans you will need to source alternative funding to cover both living costs and tuition fees. The following websites may be useful:

Other options

Other options to consider are:

studying part time so that you have more time for paid employment or possible eligibility for welfare benefits such as Universal Credit.
studying on a degree apprenticeship which is fully funded by your employer and you will earn a salary whilst studying.