Loans and Grants

If you have secured a place through Clearing, you will need to look at applying for your funding. The process is different for students from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but you can find links to each site on the gov.uk student finance for undergraduates page.

Student Finance England has produced a video for students going through the clearing process who need to apply for finance.

If you have any questions or are concerned about your student funding assessment then please contact one of our finance advisers at moneymatters@salford.ac.uk or on +44 (0)161 295 0023 for help.

If you are on a healthcare course, you might be eligible for additional funding through the NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF). This is administered by the NHSBSA. The LSF is made up of: 

• Training grant (£5000) 

• Specialist subject payment (£1000) for healthcare courses with a specialism 

• Parental Support Payment (an extra £2000 for qualifying students) 

• Travel and Dual Accommodation Expenses (for placement costs) 

• Exceptional Support Fund (up to £3000, although this is last-resort hardship funding for students who have already approached us about our Salford Support Fund) 

Applications are made by registering for an LSF account online at the NHSBSA website. For further details, please visit their website. It also contains the LSF Account portal. 

This information covers pre-NHS registration courses. The University offers a wide range of Allied Health Profession courses including: Radiography, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Podiatry, (Integrated Practice) Learning Disabilities Nursing and Social Work.

The main source of funding for these courses is from Student Finance England (for English residents) and is the same as the funding for undergraduate students studying other degree subjects.

If you are from another part of the UK and want to study an Allied Health Profession course in England, you should be aware that there may be restrictions imposed on the availability of student funding to you. Please check with your funding body.

New part-time students can apply for a tuition fee loan from Student Finance to help pay tuition fees.



If applying to Student Finance England the following conditions need to be met – you should check conditions if applying to other authorities:

• The course intensity must be a minimum of 25% of the full-time course equivalent. Study intensity is the number of modules you study per year, as a percentage of the equivalent full-time course intensity
• Part-time students can also apply for a Maintenance Loan to help support with living costs
• The amount that can be borrowed will depend on a few different factors such as household income, study intensity, and where you live.

Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professional courses

Postgraduate level healthcare students who are not already qualified practitioners in their subject yare generally eligible for the same student funding package which is awarded to undergraduate students. For information on how to apply, see Student finance: how to apply: How to apply - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Social Work Bursary

There are a limited number of bursaries available for home students studying for the MA in Social Work. Applications should be made directly to NHSBSA. For more information see the course description here and for the full guide, please visit the NHSBSA website.



Postgraduate Social Work students who are eligible for the NHS bursary cannot apply for the Masters Loan from Student Finance. 

Postgraduate Loans

You can apply for a Postgraduate Masters Loan from Student Finance England for any amount up to £12,471 (max for 2024/25) to help with the costs of studying a UK Masters Degree 

There is also a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan of up to £29,390 to study for a UK PhD.   

The money you borrow is split equally over the number of your course. For example, if you are studying for a one-year Master’s Degree you will get the full amount borrowed during that year. If your course runs over two years then you will get 50% of your loan each year. However, there are some restrictions on the length of time you can study for: 

• Masters: full-time lasting one or two years, part-time lasting two to four years (no more than twice the length of the equivalent full-time course) or part-time up to three years where no equivalent full-time course exists. 
• Doctoral: full-time or part-time lasting between three to eight academic years.  

You are unable to get a Masters Loan for a postgraduate certificate or diploma. For more information on eligibility and how to apply, please visit the Student Finance England website. 

If you have any questions regarding this, please contact the Money Matters team at moneymatters@salford.ac.uk or +44 (0)161 295 0023. 

Allied Health Profession Courses, or ‘NHS courses’ as they are often called, are generally ‘exempted courses’ when it comes to applying for funding. This means that if you have a previous honours degree in a different subject, you can still apply to Student Finance for funding for an NHS course 

You should also be able to apply to the NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF) for additional funding. Full details can be found on the NHSBSA website which includes application guidance and contact details for queries.

Undergraduate Social Work students may be able to get  a supplementary Social Work Bursary from their second year of study, i.e from level 5 onwards. However, this there are a limited number of bursaries, so this is not guaranteed. Moe information can be found at the NHSBSA website.

If you are an undergraduate student and your course started after 1st August 2016 then you can apply for the loan for living costs to help with such things as rent and food while you are studying.

Students who are eligible for help with their living costs can get the non means-tested part of the loan for living costs, because nearly half of the maximum amount is not means-tested against any household income.

• This loan is paid directly to students three times a year at the start of each term
• It is an up-front payment designed to last for the term
• You must have a personal UK bank or building society account in your own name
• You will need your National Insurance number 
• You will need to have registered at university and received your student ID card before you can receive your first payment

The following table shows the maximum loan for living costs available for students who began their course from 1 August 2016 onwards, based on their assessed household income. These figures are for the academic year 2024/25, for students who are ordinarily resident in England, and who study at the University of Salford.

If you have one or more children, or an adult who is financially dependent on you, then you may be able to apply for the following grants:

• Parents Learning Allowance
• Childcare Grant
• Adult Dependence Grant

If you have a specific disability or learning support needs then you may be eligible for some help through the Disabled Students Allowance.

EU and EEA students

If you are an EU national living in and studying in England, who is new to higher education, you can apply for the Tuition Fee Loan.

However, if you meet certain residency or working conditions, you may be able to apply as a ‘home’ student and also apply for the loan for living costs mentioned above.

You can apply as a ‘home’ student if you are an EU or EEA national and one of the below applies:

• You have 5 years ‘ordinary residence’ in the UK (Irish nationals need only 3 years)
• You are an EEA Migrant Worker or are the ‘relevant family member’ of one.

Please be aware that these are the general categories. More conditions apply, and it is critical to understand the official definitions of ‘ordinary residence’, ‘worker’, and ‘relevant family member’ to know if you can qualify.

If you think that you fall into one of these categories, then the guidance that UKCISA provides in their Info and Advice section is recommended.

Qualifying Non-EEA or EU nationals

Non-EEA and non-EU nationals can sometimes qualify for student funding if their permission to stay in the UK is either unlimited (such as having Indefinite Leave to Remain), or if they fit into an immigration category where their leave to remain officially expires, but the category is accepted. For example, Refugees often have a 5-year expiry date on their BRP, nonetheless they are not barred from student funding because the Home Office has recognised them as being refugees. Other qualifying conditions for support, such as previous study, will still apply.

Again, for an authoritative guide we recommend UKCISA.