To be eligible to apply for support you must:
- meet our residence conditions as set out in The Students' Allowances (Scotland) Regulations 2007 (as amended);
- be studying a course that we support; and
- not have received support from UK public funds for a previous vocational postgraduate course. Or if you are an EU (including UK) national, you have not received support from another EU country.
For more information on courses that we do and do not support and how previous study affects the support available, please see the relevant section of the site.
To meet our residence conditions you must have been ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for the three years immediately before the relevant date (the first day of the first academic year of your course). For the majority of students who start their course in the autumn term, the relevant date is 1 August. You must also be ordinarily resident in Scotland on the relevant date. Students from the European Union (non UK) may also be eligible to apply for support, if they meet our residence conditions.
If you study a postgraduate course in the session immediately after you complete a first course of higher education, and your place of ordinary residence is in the UK, you should apply to the organisation that gave you support for your first course. We cannot act as an alternative source of support if the proper award-making organisation will not support you. For example:
- If you are an English student who was funded by your local education authority (LEA) for a degree at a Scottish institution and now want to study a postgraduate course in Scotland , you must apply to the LEA for support. As you were only living in Scotland to study, this does not count as ordinary residence.
If you are a Scottish student who was funded by us for a degree course at a university in England and now want to study on a postgraduate course anywhere in the UK, you should apply to us for support.
If you start a postgraduate course after a break in study of one year or more, you should apply to the award making body in the area that you are resident on the relevant date. Returning at weekends or for holidays in Scotland does not count as ordinary residence.
Find out more about our residence eligibility conditions
Previous study
If you have previously undertaken a postgraduate course, this may effect your entitlement to support.
You will not be eligible for a postgraduate tuition fee loan if:
- you have previously taken a short vocational postgraduate course, including teacher training, with support from UK or other EU public funds . Students undertaking Educational Psychology should contact us for further advice.
You may still be eligible if you have previously taken:
- a short vocational postgraduate course, including teacher training, without support from UK or other EU public funds
- an advanced research level postgraduate course of two years or more such as a PhD.