No course fees for 16-18 year olds.
No course fees for 19-24 year olds with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
What is an EHCP?
Level 2
Level 3
Access to HE
Level 4
Advance Learner Loan
Aged 19 or over and thinking about studying a Level 3 or Level 4 course at Access Creative College? You may be able to get an Advanced Learner Loan to pay for it.
Most learners aged 19 and over, will qualify for these loans from the UK Government. It’s easy to apply, your
household income isn’t taken into account and there’s no credit check. You won’t have to pay anything back until your income is over the repayment threshold.
Find out more at www.gov.uk/advanced-learner-loan
MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICE
It’s important you consider your own circumstances and look into all options for paying for your course before choosing to take out a loan.
If you are 19 to 23 and are studying your first full Level 3 qualification you might not need to pay for your course at
another college or training provider. You can still choose to fund your Level 3 qualification with an Advanced Learner Loan, but if you choose to fund it with an Advanced Learner Loan, you lose your entitlement to funding from other providers.
The National Careers Service will be able to advise you as to which learning providers in your local area offer the course you want to do, without you having to pay for it.
If you want advice on managing your finances you can get impartial money advice from the Money Advice Service at http://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk.
GENERAL FAQS
Generally speaking, yes. Previous qualifications you’ve achieved won’t affect your ability to apply for your first loan.
However, depending on when you started your course, you might not be able to get another loan to do the same type of course at the same level. You also cannot take out another loan for an Access to HE Course if you have previously funded an Access to HE course with an Advanced Learner Loan.
You can have up to a maximum of four Advanced Learner Loans in total.
You can apply for multiple advanced learner loans at the same time for courses of the same type and level.
Student Finance England will pay your agreed loan to your college or training organisation once they’ve confirmed that you have registered on the course.
If you wish to study a course with Access Creative College that is not eligible for Loans support this would need to be discussed and payment agreed prior to enrolment.
To be eligible for an Advanced Learner Loan you must:
- Be aged 19 or over as of the start date of the course.
- Be studying a Level 3, 4, 5 or 6 course at a college or other training provider in England.
- Be living in the UK on the first day of your course.
- Be a UK National or have ‘Settled Status’- the Student Loans Company (SLC) will ask for proof of this as part of your application.
- Have been ordinarily resident in the UK, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or specified overseas territories for 3 years before starting your course
To summarise, if you have been living in the UK, Islands and Ireland for 3 years before starting your course, you may be eligible for a loan to study at a learning provider in England.
You can also apply if you’ve been living in the UK, the EEA, Gibraltar or Switzerland for the past 3 years and are:
- The child of a Swiss national and have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.
- An EEA or Swiss worker, or the family member of an EEA or Swiss worker, and you or your family member have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
- An Irish citizen and were living in the UK, Ireland, EEA or Switzerland on 31 December 2020.
- The child of a Turkish worker.
- A UK national, or the family member of a UK National, and have lived in the UK, EEA, Gibraltar or Switzerland for the past 3 years and were living in the EEA or Switzerland on 31 December 2020, or living in the UK on 31 December 2020 after returning from the EEA or Switzerland on or after 1 January 2018.
You can also apply if you are living in the UK under one of the below Home Office statuses:
- Humanitarian protection or the family member of someone with this status.
- Stateless status or the family member of someone with this status.
- Refugee status or the family member of someone with this status.
- Calais leave and have a dependent child granted ‘leave line’
- Classed as ‘leave to remain’ under the section 67 of the Immigration act or the dependent child of someone with this status.
- Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK as the victim of domestic violence or abuse.
- Indefinite Leave to Remain as a person who has been a bereaved partner.
- Granted limited or permanent leave to remain or are the family member of someone who has, under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) or the Afghan citizens relocation scheme (ACRS).
- Granted leave to enter or remain in the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme, the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme or the Ukraine Extension Scheme
Student Finance England will also consider your application if any of the below applies:
- if you’ve been living in the UK, the EEA, Gibraltar or Switzerland for the past 3 years and have:
- pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme and are an EU national or a family member of an EU national.
- pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme and are a family member of an Irish citizen or Person of Northern Ireland.
- Gibraltarian status as an EU national or family member, or
- been living in Gibraltar as a UK national or family member.
- a family member with settled status in the UK.
You could also be eligible if you’re not a UK national and have lived in the UK for at least half your life or at least 20 years. You must have Limited Leave to Remain (including Discretionary Leave to Remain) and have lived in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man for three years before the first day of your course. You must also live in England on the first day of your course.
You may also be eligible if you’ve been living in the UK or Ireland for the past 3 years (with part of that time spent in Ireland) and have Irish citizenship.
At Access Creative College, Level 3 and 4 qualifications are eligible for loan funding.
FEES
There’s a maximum amount of loan available to you based on the type of qualification you’re doing.
Access Creative College will be able to advise you of this amount.
Your Advanced Learner Loan will cover all associated fees for your course with Access Creative College. You can choose to take out a loan for the maximum amount to cover your fee or you can pay all or part of the course fee yourself.
No. Your loan will be paid to Access Creative College in line with your attendance on the course. When you stop attending, payments will stop and you’ll only be liable to repay the amount (including any interest accrued on that amount) that’s already been paid to Access Creative College.
The Advanced Learner Loan only covers the fee you’re being charged by Access Creative College for your course. However, Access Creative College is able to provide financial support for course related costs for those facing financial hardship (where eligible) through Bursary Funds. Further information on this can be found on the college website
Applications submitted online that don’t require any further supporting evidence (because you’ve provided your valid UK passport details) will be processed quickly and you should receive the result of your application within two weeks. If you don’t apply online or you don’t send the evidence required at the time of application it will take longer.
If you decide before the start of your course you no longer want to undertake your course or you don’t want to take out a loan for the course, log onto your online student finance account and follow the instructions.
Your loan application will be cancelled and you won’t have any loan to repay.
No loan payments will be made to Access Creative College on your behalf until you’ve attended the course for at least two weeks. If you leave the course after more than two weeks then you’ll be liable to repay the loan payments that have been made to Access Creative College on your behalf, for the time you have been on the course.
For any courses with Access Creative College you would need to take out a new loan for each year of study. Access Creative College runs each year of a course separately.
Other providers may run their courses together requiring only one loan for 2 years of study.
REPAYMENTS
You’ll be due to start repaying your loan in the April after you complete or leave your course. You’ll only start making repayments when your income is over the repayment threshold. If your income falls below these thresholds, repayments will stop and only re-start when your income is over these thresholds.
Please visit www.gov.uk/advanced-learner-loan for more information.
You can also make voluntary repayments direct to SLC at any time in order to accrue less interest and pay off your loan more quickly.
Repayments will be made at 9% of your income over the repayment threshold. You’ll only start making repayments when your income is over £524 a week, £2,274 a month or £27,295 a year. If your income falls below these thresholds, repayments will stop and only re-start when your income is over these thresholds.
Voluntary repayments can be paid to the Student Loans Company at any point. You don’t need to wait until your income is over the repayment threshold. Any early repayment, either partial or full, will reduce the interest that will accrue.
You’ll only ever have to make repayments in line with your income if you earn more than the repayment threshold. Any loan balances which remain after 30 years will be written off. Please visit www.gov.uk/advanced-learner-loan for more information.
You’ll make a single repayment regardless of how many student loans you have, including HE and Advanced Learner Loans.
If you complete an Access to HE Diploma course, funded with an Advanced Learner Loan, and go on to complete an HE qualification, SLC will write off any outstanding balance on your Advanced Learner Loan.
Loans are excluded from your bankruptcy debts. This means that during and upon discharge from bankruptcy you remain liable to repay this loan.
If you die then your loan will be written off.
Yes. If you go abroad we’ll make arrangements with you to collect repayments while you’re outside of the UK tax system. Your repayment threshold may vary according to price level indices for that country. You’ll be required to pay a fixed instalment to be calculated by SLC.
Some of the interest on your loan will be based on inflation (Retail Price Index (RPI)). The table below shows how interest is calculated.
The Retail Price Index, RPI, is a measure of UK inflation. It measures changes to the cost of living in the UK. The UK government uses the rate of RPI for many purposes, including setting the interest rate charged on student loans.
Advanced Learner Loans are administered by Student Finance England (SFE).
Student Finance England is a Student Loans Company service, providing financial support to students on behalf of the UK government.
