Fees and funding – a parents' guide

Financial support

To help you and your children manage the cost of university, we offer a number of generous scholarships, bursaries and grants.

Katharine Reed, University of Sunderland Access to Higher Education and Scholarships Officer, recently took to Facebook Live to break down what financial support is available to our students: 

Expert financial advice, when they need it 

Additional guidance and support is available from our Student Financial Guidance team, who can provide expert financial guidance to students and prospective students on a wide range of issues – so you can get expert help before you even apply for university. The service is free, confidential, impartial and non-judgmental. 

While the team can't speak to you about your child's specific circumstances, they are always happy to offer general guidance and answer any questions you have. Feel free to give them a call, email or pop in to see them at an Open Day. 

Is my child eligible for support from the government?

Student Finance England deal with all tuition fee and living cost loans. While most students are eligible for some type of support, it's always worth checking what your child is specifically eligible for before you apply. Thankfully, Student Finance England have put this handy guide together, explaining who is eligible for what and what circumstances affect eligibility. 

How do they apply?

Another handy guide from Student Finance England, this one explains how to apply, what documentation is needed and what the timescales for processing applications are. If your children are dependent / living at home, your input will be vital to the application.

How and when will they repay the loans?

Your child will be expected to start repaying their loan when they are earning over £25,000, so you needn't worry about them being under pressure to pay the money back before they have good graduate job. The repayments are automatically taken from wages and are currently calculated at 9% of earnings over £25,000. This is quite modest and the payments automatically stop if earning go below the £25,000 threshold. 

How does the University support students in budgeting and managing money?

Our Student Financial Guidance team has put together a number of useful resources for this very purpose, which include guidance on keeping track of money, budgeting, saving money, part-time work and even investing money. Learn more about keeping track.