The Grammar School for Girls Wilmington

How much will your university course cost?

The two types of cost you'll face in higher education are:

• tuition fees
• your accommodation and day-to-day living expenses

Tuition fees help pay for the costs of running a university or college - salaries for teaching staff, maintaining the buildings and so on.

If you’re doing a full time course, this page tells you the maximum amount you’ll be charged for tuition fees. Exactly what you’ll have to pay depends on which university or college you go to, which course you do, and where in the UK you study.

Full time students: how much will your tuition fees be?

If your course started in or after September 2006 - or you haven’t started yet - the maximum tuition fees you can be charged for 2008/2009 is £3,145.

You can find out about tuition fees for individual courses through the UCAS website.

Tuition fees for part-time students

There are no regulations stating how much universities can charge in tuition fees for part-time courses. Check with your university or college how much they charge - it’s also worth finding out how much the fees are likely to rise over the length of your course.

Accommodation and other living costs

There are a number of things to take into account when you’re working out your living costs. Your costs will be higher if you live away from home, and higher still if you live away from home and study in London.

• Living costs for full-time students include:
• accommodation - this is likely to be your single biggest expense if you’re living away from home
• food
• household bills - gas, electricity, water rates, phone, TV licence, contents insurance (some of these will be covered by your rent in you live in halls of residence)
• clothes
• travel
• socialising
• leisure and sport
• study costs - such as books, materials and field trips for your course

Help with the costs of going to university

There’s financial support available to help with tuition fees, and you may qualify for help with your accommodation and living costs. Follow the relevant links below to find out what you can get.

• Full-time students: getting started
• Do you qualify for student finance?
• Student Loans
• Maintenance Grant: help with living cost
• Reviewing your personal finances (money, tax and benefits section)

When you’ve worked out how much higher education is going to cost and how much help you’ll get, you’re ready to draw up a budget:

• try to work out a weekly or monthly budget and stick to it
• remember that any grant or loan you receive is meant to last you until the beginning of the next term - including holidays

For up-to-date information on loans and fees visit the student support direct website.

A useful site showing a map of the country with links to University finance and bursary information can be found at the bursarymap website.

A new website related to student funding can be found at www.uniaid.org.uk. This enables you to play a student survival game.