Scottish Students Taking a Postgraduate Course in England
What SAAS actually funds, why your loans stay on Plan 4, and the narrow case where the £21,000 postgraduate threshold applies
Key Takeaways
- If you normally live in Scotland you apply to SAAS, not Student Finance England, even when the university is in England. SAAS funds eligible full-time Postgraduate Diploma and Master's courses at publicly funded universities and approved private providers across the rest of the UK
- Full-time SAAS postgraduate funding is a tuition fee loan of up to £7,000 plus a living-cost loan of up to £6,900, which includes a £2,400 Special Support Loan. Both are for the whole course and are split equally across its years
- Everything SAAS lends you sits on Plan 4, postgraduate borrowing included. GOV.UK is explicit: if you applied to Student Awards Agency Scotland you are on Plan 4, whether you studied an undergraduate course or a postgraduate course. A Master's in England does not move you onto the English postgraduate plan
- Plan 4 for 2026-27 means 9% of income above £33,795, interest at the lower of RPI or the Bank of England base rate plus 1% (currently 4.1%), and write-off 30 years after the first April following the end of your course
- The 6% rate above £21,000 that people associate with postgraduate study belongs to the English Postgraduate Loan, known officially as Plan 3. You only hold one if you qualified for Student Finance England, which normally requires you to live in England. Where a graduate holds both, the deductions stack: 9% above £33,795 plus 6% above £21,000
In this article
A Scottish-domiciled student who moves to England for a Master's sits across two systems. The university is English and sets an English postgraduate fee, but the funding still comes from Scotland. SAAS decides what you can borrow, the Student Loans Company pays it out, and the whole balance is repaid on Plan 4.
This guide covers what SAAS will and will not fund at postgraduate level, how a £7,000 fee loan meets an uncapped English postgraduate fee, what your repayments actually come to, and the narrow set of circumstances in which a Scottish graduate ends up holding an English Plan 3 postgraduate loan as well.
The most common misconception: studying for a Master's in England does not transfer you to the English postgraduate loan plan. GOV.UK states that if you applied to Student Awards Agency Scotland you are on Plan 4, whether you studied an undergraduate course or a postgraduate course. SAAS says the same thing: a Scottish student who started an undergraduate or postgraduate course anywhere in the UK on or after 1 September 1998 is on repayment Plan 4.
Who Funds a Scottish Postgraduate
Each part of the UK runs its own student funding agency. Scotland's is the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS). If you normally live in Scotland you apply to SAAS, not to Student Finance England, Student Finance Wales or Student Finance NI, and that stays true wherever in the UK your course happens to be.
Which Courses SAAS Will Fund
SAAS is more restrictive at postgraduate level than it is for undergraduates. Its published rules for full-time postgraduate funding are:
- Qualification level: SAAS funds courses at Postgraduate Diploma and Master's level. It does not fund Postgraduate Certificate, PhD or Doctorate level courses. Doctoral students are pointed towards a Research Council instead
- Where the course is: eligible courses at publicly funded universities and approved private providers in Scotland qualify, and SAAS also funds students on eligible full-time courses at publicly funded universities and approved private providers in the rest of the United Kingdom
- Course length: SAAS generally funds full-time Postgraduate Diplomas taking up to 1 year and full-time Master's taking up to 2 years
- Distance learning: eligible, but the course must have a minimum amount of mandatory teaching or contact time with staff at the institution. Contact SAAS to check a specific course
Example:
Eilidh has lived in Aberdeen all her life and finished an undergraduate degree at the University of Glasgow. She is now starting a one-year MSc at the University of Manchester. She applies to SAAS, not to Student Finance England, because ordinary residence in Scotland determines her funding source rather than the location of the university.
Residence Conditions
SAAS publishes three separate sets of residence conditions, and which one applies depends on your nationality:
- Residence conditions for UK nationals
- Residence conditions for EU, Irish, EEA, Swiss, Gibraltar and Turkish nationals
- Residence conditions for non-EEA nationals
Previous Study Can Block the Fee Loan
This catches people out more often than the residence rules do. SAAS says you may not be able to get a loan to pay your tuition fees if you have already received public funding from the UK or EU to study a postgraduate course, including:
- a PGDE or PGCE
- a Postgraduate Diploma or a course at Master's level
- the postgraduate part of an Architecture programme, usually an MArch, Diploma in Architecture or PG Dip
Social work courses: if you are studying a postgraduate social work course you may be eligible for funding from the Scottish Social Services Council instead. If you receive any funding from the SSSC you are not eligible for any SAAS funding, including a student loan.
What SAAS Offers Postgraduates
SAAS does not operate an equivalent of the English Postgraduate Master's Loan, which is a single lump sum the student can spend on whatever they like. It splits its postgraduate support into two parts: a tuition fee loan paid to the university, and a living-cost loan paid to you.
| Element | Full-time course | Part-time course |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition fee loan | Up to £7,000 for the whole course | Up to £7,000 for the whole course |
| Living-cost loan | Up to £6,900 for the whole course | Not available |
| Special Support Loan element | £2,400 of the living-cost loan | Not applicable |
| Disabled Students' Allowance | Available, applied for separately | Available, including for part-time study elsewhere in the UK |
How the Maximums Split Across the Course
Both figures are totals for the course, not annual allowances. SAAS divides each one equally across the years:
Full-time, worked through:
- One-year course: £7,000 fee loan plus £6,900 living-cost loan, so £13,900 in that single year
- Two-year course: £3,500 fee loan plus £3,450 living-cost loan per year, £6,950 a year, still £13,900 over the course
Because most taught Master's courses in England run for one year, a Scottish student studying in England usually draws the full £13,900 in one go.
Conditions on the Living-Cost Loan
- You must be under 61 years old on the relevant date and meet the SAAS eligibility conditions
- The relevant date is 1 August for courses starting August to December, 1 January for January to March starts, 1 April for April to June starts, and 1 July for July starts
- It is not available to part-time postgraduate students, or to EU nationals coming to Scotland to study
- SAAS publishes a single maximum figure for postgraduates. Unlike the undergraduate bursary, there is no published income-banded table and no separate higher rate for studying in London
SAAS puts its own warning on this: the content on its website is for guidance only, and it can only confirm what funding you can get once it has received your completed application form. Treat the figures here as the published maximums and confirm your own entitlement with SAAS directly.
Paying English Postgraduate Tuition Fees
A Scottish student on a postgraduate course in England pays the fee the English provider sets for that course. This is where the arithmetic gets uncomfortable, because the SAAS fee loan is capped at £7,000 for the entire course regardless of what the university charges.
The £9,790 maximum tuition fee loan you may have read about is the undergraduate figure for 2026/27. It is not a postgraduate fee cap and it has no bearing on what an English university can charge for a taught Master's. Check the fee published on your specific course page before you assume anything.
How the Fee Loan Is Paid
- SAAS pays tuition fees directly to your college or university, not to you
- Payment depends on you still being on the course at the tuition fee cut-off date
- If you take a loan for your fees, it carries the same terms as the loan for living costs
- If you leave your course, you may not get a fee loan at all, and your university may still charge you for the time you were enrolled
Tuition Fee Cut-Off Dates for 2026/27
| Cut-off date | For courses starting |
|---|---|
| 1 December 2026 | 1 August 2026 to 31 December 2026 |
| 1 March 2027 | 1 January 2027 to 31 March 2027 |
| 1 June 2027 | 1 April 2027 to 30 June 2027 |
Worked Example: the Fee Shortfall
Illustration using a £12,000 course fee. Substitute your own course fee, this figure is an example, not a national average:
- Tuition fee charged by the English university: £12,000
- SAAS tuition fee loan: £7,000
- Shortfall you must find: £12,000 less £7,000 = £5,000
- Living-cost loan available: £6,900
- If you use the living-cost loan to plug the fee gap: £6,900 less £5,000 = £1,900 left for a full year of rent, bills and food
That is the real planning problem for Scottish postgraduates in England. The headline £13,900 looks reasonable until an uncapped fee absorbs most of it.
Comparison: What an England-Domiciled Classmate Gets
Sitting next to you on the same course, a student who normally lives in England applies to Student Finance England for a Postgraduate Master's Loan. The two packages are built differently:
| Feature | Scottish student (SAAS) | England-domiciled student (SFE) |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum for a one-year full-time Master's | £13,900 (£7,000 fees + £6,900 living costs) | £13,206 for courses starting on or after 1 August 2026 |
| How it is paid | Fee element to the university, living-cost element to you | Single sum paid to the student, to use for fees or living costs |
| Flexibility if fees exceed the fee element | Fee loan is hard-capped at £7,000, the rest comes out of your living-cost loan or your own money | You decide how to split the single sum between fees and living costs |
| Postgraduate Certificate courses | Not funded by SAAS | Not eligible for the Master's Loan either |
| Doctoral study | Not funded by SAAS, Research Council funding instead | Postgraduate Doctoral Loan up to £31,122 for courses starting on or after 1 August 2026 |
| Repayment plan | Plan 4 | Postgraduate Loan plan, officially Plan 3 |
On raw headline totals the SAAS package for a one-year course is slightly larger, £13,900 against £13,206. The difference is that the English student can decide how to split their money, while the Scottish student's fee support stops dead at £7,000.
Living Costs While Studying in England
The £6,900 living-cost loan is the only maintenance support SAAS offers full-time postgraduates. There is no postgraduate bursary, and there is no London uplift.
Postgraduate Support Is Much Thinner Than Undergraduate Support
It is worth seeing the two side by side, because most postgraduates budget from memory of what they had as an undergraduate. The undergraduate figures below are the 2026/27 maximum Maintenance Loans for England-domiciled full-time students, published by the Department for Education:
| Living arrangement | England-domiciled undergraduate, 2026/27 | SAAS postgraduate living-cost loan |
|---|---|---|
| Living with parents | £9,118 | £6,900 |
| Away from home, outside London | £10,830 | £6,900 |
| Away from home, in London | £14,135 | £6,900 |
A Master's in London draws on exactly the same £6,900 as a Master's in Sheffield. If you are moving to a high-cost city, the gap has to be filled from savings, part-time work, a scholarship, or family support.
The Special Support Loan Element
£2,400 of the £6,900 is designated a Special Support Loan. It is still a loan and still repayable. The designation matters for how the money is treated in certain benefit calculations rather than for how much you receive, so do not budget as though it is a grant.
One-Year Courses Cut Both Ways
Most taught Master's courses in England run for one year, which limits total living costs compared with a longer programme. It also means the whole £13,900 arrives inside a single academic year and there is no second year of funding to fall back on if the first year runs short. Build the budget for the full twelve months, including the summer dissertation period, before you accept an offer.
How Your Loans Are Repaid
This is where the Scottish postgraduate route is genuinely simpler than the English one, and where most of the confusion on this topic comes from. Everything SAAS lends you, undergraduate and postgraduate, is repaid on Plan 4.
Plan 4 Terms for 2026-27
- Repayment threshold: £33,795 a year, £2,816 a month, £649 a week
- Repayment rate: 9% of income above the threshold
- Interest rate: the lower of RPI or the Bank of England base rate plus 1%, currently 4.1%
- Write-off: 30 years after the first April following the end of your course
- Collection: automatically through PAYE if you are employed, or through Self Assessment if you are self-employed
- Repayments start: the April after you graduate or leave your course, once you are earning over the threshold
Two SAAS Loans, One Deduction
If you already had a Plan 4 loan from your Scottish undergraduate degree, the postgraduate borrowing joins it. Both sit on the same plan type, so you do not get a second, separate deduction. GOV.UK's rule for holding more than one plan without a Postgraduate Loan is that you repay 9% of income over the lowest threshold you hold and only a single repayment is taken each payday. With two Plan 4 loans, that lowest threshold is simply £33,795.
Monthly Repayment Examples on Plan 4
PAYE works from the monthly threshold of £2,816 and rounds each deduction down to whole pounds, so these are the figures that actually appear on a payslip. The salaries below all divide exactly by 12, which keeps the monthly pay figure clean and avoids a repayment that lands on a rounding boundary:
| Annual Salary | Gross Monthly Pay | Income Above £33,795 | Monthly Repayment | Annual Repayment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £30,000 | £2,500 | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| £36,000 | £3,000 | £2,205 | £16 | £192 |
| £42,000 | £3,500 | £8,205 | £61 | £732 |
| £48,000 | £4,000 | £14,205 | £106 | £1,272 |
| £54,000 | £4,500 | £20,205 | £151 | £1,812 |
| £60,000 | £5,000 | £26,205 | £196 | £2,352 |
The arithmetic on the £42,000 row:
- £42,000 divided by 12 = £3,500 gross a month
- £3,500 less the £2,816 monthly threshold = £684
- 9% of £684 = £61.56, rounded down to £61 a month
- £61 multiplied by 12 = £732 a year
GOV.UK works its own Plan 4 example the same way: on £36,000 a year, or £3,000 a month, £3,000 less £2,816 is £184, and 9% of £184 is £16.56, so the repayment is £16.
Interest: Plan 4 Is the Cheapest Plan in the UK
Plan 4 interest is the lower of RPI or the Bank of England base rate plus 1%, currently 4.1%. The Postgraduate Loan plan charges RPI plus 3% (7.1% uncapped), capped at 6% since 1 September 2026. A Scottish postgraduate funded by SAAS accrues interest at roughly two-thirds the rate an English postgraduate does on the same borrowing (4.1% against the 6% cap).
The 6% interest cap announced by the Department for Education on 7 April 2026 applies to Plan 2 and Plan 3 borrowers in England and Wales from 1 September 2026, for the 2026/27 academic year. It does not apply to Plan 1, Plan 4 or Plan 5. If all of your borrowing is from SAAS, the cap changes nothing for you, and at 4.1% Plan 4 is already below it.
When Plan 3 Does Apply to a Scottish Graduate
Plan 3 is the official Department for Education designation for the Postgraduate Loan. Borrower-facing SLC and HMRC documents normally just call it the "Postgraduate Loan", which is why the number looks unfamiliar. It is a real plan with a £21,000 threshold and a 6% repayment rate.
You only end up on it if you took out an English or Welsh postgraduate loan. To get a Postgraduate Master's Loan from Student Finance England you must normally live in England and have been living in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for three years in a row before the first day of the first academic year of your course. A student who is still ordinarily resident in Scotland will not meet that test.
The realistic route to holding Plan 4 and Plan 3 at the same time is therefore a Scottish graduate who moved to England after their undergraduate degree, became ordinarily resident there, and then started a Master's funded by Student Finance England.
Plan 3 (Postgraduate Loan) terms for 2026-27:
- Threshold £21,000 a year, £1,750 a month, £403 a week
- Repayment rate 6% of income above the threshold
- Interest RPI plus 3%, capped at 6% since 1 September 2026
- Written off 30 years after the first April following the end of the course
How Plan 4 and Plan 3 Stack
Where a graduate does hold both, the two deductions do not merge. GOV.UK's rule is that you repay 6% of income over the Postgraduate Loan threshold and 9% over the lowest threshold of any other plan you hold. Both come off the same payslip:
| Annual Salary | Plan 4 (9% over £33,795) | Plan 3 (6% over £21,000) | Total Monthly | Total Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £30,000 | £0 | £45 | £45 | £540 |
| £36,000 | £16 | £75 | £91 | £1,092 |
| £42,000 | £61 | £105 | £166 | £1,992 |
| £48,000 | £106 | £135 | £241 | £2,892 |
| £54,000 | £151 | £165 | £316 | £3,792 |
| £60,000 | £196 | £195 | £391 | £4,692 |
The arithmetic on the £42,000 row:
- Gross monthly pay: £42,000 divided by 12 = £3,500
- Plan 4: £3,500 less £2,816 = £684, and 9% of that = £61.56, rounded down to £61
- Plan 3: £3,500 less £1,750 = £1,750, and 6% of that = £105 exactly
- Total deduction: £61 plus £105 = £166 a month, or £1,992 a year
Notice that the postgraduate loan bites first and bites harder for most of this range. At £30,000 the Plan 4 loan takes nothing at all, because £30,000 is below the £33,795 threshold, while the Plan 3 loan is already taking £45 a month. The two only draw level at around £60,000.
You cannot choose which loan to prioritise. Both deductions are calculated independently by your employer's payroll and allocated by the Student Loans Company. You can make voluntary extra repayments to a specific loan through your online repayment account if you want to clear one faster, which usually means targeting the higher-interest postgraduate balance first.
Scotland Compared With England and Wales
The clearest way to see how unusual the Scottish position is at postgraduate level is to line up which repayment plan each funding body puts you on. GOV.UK publishes the full mapping:
| If you applied to | Undergraduate plan | Master's or doctoral plan |
|---|---|---|
| Student Awards Agency Scotland | Plan 4 | Plan 4 |
| Student Finance England, course from 1 Aug 2023 | Plan 5 | Postgraduate Loan plan (Plan 3) |
| Student Finance England, course 1 Sep 2012 to 31 Jul 2023 | Plan 2 | Postgraduate Loan plan (Plan 3) |
| Student Finance Wales, course from 1 Sep 2012 | Plan 2 | Postgraduate Loan plan (Plan 3) |
| Student Finance Northern Ireland | Plan 1 | Plan 1 |
Scotland and Northern Ireland are the two nations that keep postgraduate borrowing on the same plan as undergraduate borrowing. England and Wales split it, which is why an English or Welsh graduate with a Master's carries two simultaneous deductions and a Scottish one usually does not.
Comparison: the Same £42,000 Salary Across the UK
Take five graduates, each with an undergraduate loan and a Master's loan from their own nation's funding body, all earning £42,000, which is exactly £3,500 gross a month. Using the 2026-27 thresholds:
| Graduate | Plans held | Monthly deduction | Annual deduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scotland, SAAS funded throughout | Plan 4 only | £61 | £732 |
| Northern Ireland, SFNI funded throughout | Plan 1 only | £113 | £1,356 |
| Wales, SFW funded throughout | Plan 2 + Plan 3 | £199 | £2,388 |
| England, undergraduate 2012 to 2023 | Plan 2 + Plan 3 | £199 | £2,388 |
| England, undergraduate from Aug 2023 | Plan 5 + Plan 3 | £232 | £2,784 |
How those rows were calculated, all from £3,500 gross a month:
- Plan 4: £3,500 less £2,816 = £684, and 9% = £61.56, so £61
- Plan 1: £3,500 less £2,241 = £1,259, and 9% = £113.31, so £113
- Plan 2: £3,500 less £2,448 = £1,052, and 9% = £94.68, so £94
- Plan 5: £3,500 less £2,083 = £1,417, and 9% = £127.53, so £127
- Plan 3: £3,500 less £1,750 = £1,750, and 6% = £105 exactly
- Wales and pre-2023 England: £94 plus £105 = £199. Post-2023 England: £127 plus £105 = £232
Read this as a comparison of monthly cash flow, not of total cost. A smaller monthly deduction means the balance clears more slowly, and a loan that is still outstanding at write-off costs less overall than one repaid in full. The Scottish advantage here is real but it is mostly about take-home pay in your twenties and thirties, not about the headline size of the debt.
Why Scottish Graduates Often Start From a Smaller Balance
A Scottish student who studied their undergraduate degree in Scotland does not build up an English-scale tuition fee debt. SAAS pays the undergraduate tuition fee directly to the Scottish institution: £1,820 for a first degree or PGDE course, £1,285 for an HNC, HND or other sub-degree, and £1,205 at private colleges. None of that becomes a loan. That is why a Scottish postgraduate's total balance is usually dominated by maintenance borrowing and the postgraduate package rather than by fees.
The picture changes if you did your undergraduate degree in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. SAAS will lend a Scottish student up to £9,790 towards undergraduate tuition fees elsewhere in the UK for 2026/27, and that borrowing is also Plan 4.
Where Scotland Is Worse Off
- Hard fee cap: the £7,000 tuition fee loan does not flex, so an expensive English Master's produces a shortfall an English-funded classmate can absorb from their single £13,206 sum
- No London rate: the £6,900 living-cost loan is the same wherever in the UK you study
- Narrower course coverage: SAAS does not fund Postgraduate Certificate courses or doctoral study, where Student Finance England offers a Doctoral Loan of up to £31,122 for courses starting on or after 1 August 2026
- No part-time living costs: part-time postgraduates get the fee loan only, with no help towards living costs
Applying to SAAS: Process and Deadlines
You apply online through saas.gov.uk, whether your course is in Glasgow or in Bristol. Do not apply to Student Finance England because your university is English, and do not assume last year's application rolls over.
Deadlines for 2026/27
- Apply as early as you can: SAAS says applications received after 30 June 2026 may not be processed before your course starts
- Closing date: 31 March 2027 for the 2026/27 academic year
- Every year, not just the first: you must apply for student funding for each year of your course
- Tuition fee cut-off: SAAS will not pay your fees if you leave the course before the cut-off date that applies to your start date
Step by Step
- Create or sign in to your SAAS account at saas.gov.uk. If you have not applied since 2016 to 2017 or earlier, SAAS has a separate route for reactivating your record
- Check your course is fundable: Postgraduate Diploma or Master's level, full-time or part-time, at a publicly funded university or approved private provider anywhere in the UK
- Declare any previous postgraduate study: earlier UK or EU public funding for a PGDE, PGCE, Postgraduate Diploma, Master's level course or the postgraduate part of an Architecture programme can remove your entitlement to the fee loan
- Apply for the elements you need: the tuition fee loan, the living-cost loan if you are full-time, or both
- Provide the evidence SAAS asks for and check which residence guide applies to your nationality
- Apply separately for Disabled Students' Allowance if you need it. This is not part of the online funding application and should be completed with the disability adviser at your university
- Reapply for the next year if your Master's runs for two years
What to Do About the Shortfall
Because the SAAS package rarely covers an English postgraduate fee plus a year of living costs, plan the gap before you accept an offer rather than after:
- Check whether the English university offers scholarships or fee discounts, including alumni discounts if you did an earlier degree there
- Ask whether the department funds studentships, demonstrating work or teaching assistance
- Check whether a Research Council or a professional body funds your subject, particularly for research-based courses
- Ask the university whether fees can be paid in instalments across the year rather than up front
- If your course is doctoral, remember SAAS will not fund it and Research Council funding is the intended route
Always confirm figures against SAAS before you commit. SAAS states that the content on its website is for guidance only and that it can only confirm what funding you will get once it has your completed application form. Amounts and rules are reviewed for each academic year.
Work Out What a Master's in England Will Cost You
Model your Plan 4 repayments, and check the combined figure if you also hold a postgraduate loan
Student Loan Calculator UK Editorial Team
Editorial Team
This page is maintained by the Student Loan Calculator UK editorial team, checked against GOV.UK and Student Loans Company guidance. Read more about our editorial approach.
Related Resources
Plan 4 Student Loans Explained
Full guide to the SAAS repayment plan, its £33,795 threshold and its 4.1% interest rate
Postgraduate Loan (Plan 3)
The £21,000 threshold, the 6% rate and the 6% interest cap that applies from September 2026
How SAAS Loans Differ
Where Scottish student finance parts company with the rest of the UK