Study loans open doors for adults keen on a return to college

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/08/study-loans-adults-return-college-fund-course

Version 0 of 1.

Do you fancy returning to study? Perhaps you want another qualification, or to pursue a passion. Maybe you’re seeking a confidence boost, or simply want to meet new people.

Spearheaded by the charity National Voice for Lifelong Learning, Adult Learners’ Week, which runs from 13-19 June, aims to encourage adults of all ages to “discover how learning can change your life”.

Yet if you decide to take the plunge, how much does returning to education cost? We spoke to four very different adult learners to find out how they funded their studies.

The midwife and the learning loan

Robyn Comerford, 25, is studying an access to allied health professions level 3 diploma at the City of Liverpool College. She took out a 24+Advance Learning Loan from the government to pay for the £3,500 course, which will enable her to study for a degree in midwifery at university.

“I left school without completing my A-levels and got an office job because I wanted freedom - I didn’t feel ready to take a degree. I became interested in midwifery after I started volunteering at the charity MRANG, assisting at the births of refugees and asylum seekers on Merseyside. Many of the women are pregnant as a result of trafficking and rape. I knew that if I became a midwife I could help these women. If it wasn’t for that loan I wouldn’t have been able to afford the tuition fees.

“I am still working at my office job two days a week. I’ll stop once I go to university, and luckily my course is NHS-funded so there are no tuition fees – and because I’ve supported myself for the past three years I’m eligible for the full loans, bursaries and grants, which come to about £400 a month.

“I am living at home so I’ll only be about £6,000 in debt at the end of the three years, and my starting salary will be around £23,000. I could earn more if I stayed in my current job – but being happy at work and giving something back is more important to me than money.”

The probation officer and the student loan

Beverley Gray, 37, is studying for a degree in criminology and criminal justice with the University of Essex. She funded the six-year online course, which costs £18,000, with a student loan from Student Finance England, and hopes to get a job as a probation officer upon graduation.

“I am a full-time carer for my husband, who is in a wheelchair, and I also have three children to look after. Doing a degree online, from home, is ideal for me. I spend four hours a day studying, when the kids are at school.

“We already had a computer for the kids, so my only expense so far has been buying notepaper. But there’s no way I could have paid for the course without my student loan. At the moment we are living entirely on benefits – my husband gets disability allowance and I get a carer’s allowance.

“I don’t have to make any loan repayments until I earn more than £21,000 a year. I’m happy about that – I want to pay it back when I get a decent job, and I’m hoping to earn between £20,000 and £25,000 as a probation officer.

“I feel much better about myself since I started the course. I think it’s also encouraging my children to have a love of learning. Before I started it, my son couldn’t wait to leave school. Now, he wants to study law at university.”

The soldier and the subsidised study

Former army sergeant Michael Davies, 41, studied for a CVQO City & Guilds qualification in leadership and management to help him to transition from military to civilian life.

He used a lump sum received when he left the army to fund the £390 CVQO-subsidised course, which was developed to provide volunteers in youth organisations with vocational qualifications that recognise their work.

“I studied for my two-year graduateship, which is comparable to a BA degree with honours, while volunteering with the cadets. To pass, I had to use all the experience and knowledge I’d built up over 15 years in the army and the cadets – such as different methods of leading and developing the youth of today.

“I would volunteer with the cadets for 96 hours a month, and I’d spend about four or five hours a week on my coursework. I am severely dyslexic, but the help the CVQO tutors give you is unreal. And where else can you get a BA-comparable qualification for £390?

“It opened up doors for me. When I left the army I struggled to find a job. Now I’m earning £32,000 a year working with youth organisations for the army.”

The academic and the university grant

Ewan Jones returned to university as a mature student after being awarded a scholarship by King’s College, Cambridge. Now 33, he is a research fellow in English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and last year published a book, Coleridge and the Philosophy of Poetic Form, based on his university-funded PhD.

“I was really lucky – all of my fees for my MPhil were paid for by King’s College, and I also received £6,500 towards my living expenses during the nine-month course. But I’d got married, and didn’t want to live like a student. I also didn’t want to get into debt, so even though the MPhil was full-time , I also worked part-time as a language tutor.

“I applied to do a PhD and got university funding, which was £12,400 a year, plus all my fees were paid for. I wouldn’t have been able to do the PhD without this funding, which is extremely difficult to get – especially nowadays because the amount available has been cut.

“Ten months after I completed my PhD I applied for my job at Trinity Hall: there were 740 applicants for the two positions on offer. Unfortunately, it’s not a permanent academic role, so the position still feels very precarious.

“Nobody goes into academia for the money. The starting salary for a Cambridge research fellow is £20,000-£26,000. But you can earn extra money supervising students – and you get to live in a college flat for free.”

FUNDING OPTIONS

■ 24+ loans You can apply if you are over 24, have lived in the UK for three years, and are enrolling on a course at level 3 or 4 (which include A-levels and access to higher education diplomas). This doesn’t need to be paid back until you earn more than £21,000 a year.

■ Other loans Tuition fee loans (up to £9,000) and maintenance loans (up to £8,009) for higher education courses. You pay back 9% of your earnings in excess of £21,000. If you never earn enough, you’ll never have to repay anything.

■ Grants You can get a maintenance grant if your household income is below £42,620, and a special support grant if you qualify for income support, housing benefit, income-related employment and support allowance, housing benefit or the housing element of universal credit.

■ Scholarships Websites thescholarship hub.org.uk and scholarship-search.org.uk let you search for funding for universities. Moneysavingexpert.com/family/grants-education gives information about hidden sources of funding.

■ Interest-free overdrafts. The market-leader is Santander’s 123 student current account, which offers interest-free three-year overdrafts of up to £1,500 to students who are on a two-year course with a higher education provider, plus you get a free railcard. To qualify you must pay in at least £500 per term.