Adviser Notes

1. Adviser Notes

2. Teacher/Adviser Notes Introduction and How much do you know? – Slides 1-5 The information and exercises in this guide will give students an overview of the main areas of student finance and touch on topics such as money management, budgeting and repayments which will all be essential in helping ensure a smooth transition into higher education. Before progressing into the main content, encourage students to answer the set questions on slides 4-5 to test what they already know about student finance and when they have completed the guide to go back and see how they got on. What is Student Finance Wales? – Slides 6-7 This section provides a brief introduction to Student Finance Wales (SFW). The key messages to get across here are that SFW is part of the wider Student Loans Company and the funding on offer is government backed, so not the same as a commercial loan and that a range of support is available to eligible students while they are studying to help with tuition fees and living costs. What finance is available? – Slides 8-17 An overview of the main forms of student finance available including Tuition Fee Loans and Maintenance Support. One of the first things to note is that students need to meet certain criteria to be eligible for support from SFW. This will be linked to their course, university/college, previous HE study, their personal circumstances and residency. Of these, personal eligibility may be one which needs to be further explained. A studentis likely to be personally eligible if: • they’re a UK national who is ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK on the first day of the first academic • year of their course • they’ve been living in the UK the three years immediately before this date and not wholly or mainly • to get full-time education • they have ‘settled status’ – which means the student can live permanently in the UK without the • Home Office placing any restrictions on how long they can stay • Students may also be eligible for funding if they hold one of the following residency statuses: • refugee; Humanitarian Protection (HP) (must be as the result of a failed application for asylum) • migrant worker; child of a Swiss national, an EU national or child of a Turkish worker in the UK. • The remainder of the section explains the core elements of student finance in more detail and • introduces NHS Bursaries and studying at private HEIs which may be relevant to some students. ? • Quiz question answers – Slides 4-5 • Q1 - Loans and grants to help with tuition fees and living costs Q2 – As soon as possible • Q3 – Your Future Income Q4 - £21,000 i • If required, further information on eligibility for student finance can be found online at • www.studentfinancewales.co.uk or by calling SFW on 0300 200 4050

3. Teacher/Adviser Notes From this information and exercise students should now know about the range of core finance availableand that regardless of household income (as long as they are eligible) support is there for their tuition fee and living costs. If applicable, students should be encouraged to share this information with their parents! Additional support – Slides 20-22 Students with disabilities, long-term heath conditions, mental-health conditions or specific learning difficulties, child or adult dependents need to be made aware of the addition support on offer to them which is what this section will introduce along with bursaries and scholarships. Many universities and colleges of HE will offer a range of bursaries and scholarships to their students which could potentially be worth thousands of pounds. To ensure they do not miss out, research needs to be done on these early – what they are, how to qualify and how and when to apply. Part 2 Applications and Beyond, How and when to apply – Slides 25-29 A page of general hints, tips and advice on how and when to apply for student finance. The key messages to get across are that students need to apply online as soon as possible to ensure their funding is in place when they start their course, they don’t need to have a confirmed offer before applying, and to ensure that all identity and income evidence required is supplied. If you are helping students register and apply, please ensure they make a note of their account security details and Customer Reference Number and keep it somewhere safe!! Managing your money – Slides 30-32 Although for many students starting in higher education will seem a long way off, it will come around faster than they think so to prepare themselves for the costs they’re going to face it’s important they start thinking about how they’re going to manage their money. One way to do this is to plan a budget listing expenses compared to income, which along with giving other information on student bank accounts, part-time jobs and NUS extra is what this section aims to get students thinking about. • Calculator activity – Slides 18-19 • To make the information more relevant to the student they can use the calculator on • www.studentfinancewales.co.uk and the quick start guide to get an initial estimate • of the support they will be entitled to get and make a note of the details in the table • provided. A A A • Students can use university/college websites and www.scholarship-search.org.uk • to check out what their choices are offering and note down the details in the boxes provided. • Students can use the budgeting page to get an idea of their likely expenses, and by using • university websites , unistats , push.co.uk and other sites, start filling in some of the costs • such as rent, the price of a TV Licence or 16-24 Railcard etc… These can then be compared • with the income estimates from the calculator and bursary/scholarship search exercises.

4. Teacher/Adviser Notes How do you repay a student loan? - Slides 33-35 Ideally, students will be making their university choices based on the course content and future career prospects, although some may be basing their decision on who offers a lower tuition charge due to the perception of having a lifetime of unmanageable debt. This may not need to be the case if the student and their key decision makers understand how the repayment system works, which is what this section will begin to address. This information describes when a student will ‘enter repayment’, how their monthly repayment will be worked out based on 9% of their future income, and no repayments will be made until they earn over £21,000 a year gross. The table shows example repayments based on various levels of income. Aside from bringing the monthly repayments into context, the key messages students need to take from this section are that, repayments will always be linked to what they earn and not what they borrowed, if at any stage their income falls below the threshold their repayments will be stopped and there is a 30 year ‘write off’ period on their repayments which starts when they enter repayment. • Interest on your loan – Slide 36 • Another area of concern for students and their parents is the interest attached to the loan. Interest is • charged from the day we make the first payment until their loan is paid off in full or written off. • The interest charged is linked to Retail Price Index (RPI) and will vary. While studying until entering • repayment, interest will be added at RPI +3%, then moving forward if earning £21,000 or under the • rate will be RPI only, earning between £21,000 and £41,000 RPI plus up to 3% until they are earning • over £41,000 when the rate will be RPI +3%. • The www.studentloanrepayment.co.uksite has more information on loan repayments, information • on interest rates and for students interested in finding out about how repayments work if they live and • work overseas after university. A A Based on an income of £30,000 a year, the amount used to work out their loan repayment would be £9,000 as that is what is earned over £21,000. A basic way of working out the monthly repayment would be to divide £9,000 by 12 giving £750 and calculate 9% of that (750 x 0.09) giving a monthly payment of £67.50 which would then be rounded down to £67. Student checklist Students can use this checklist as a reminder of the key stages in applying for student finance and helping make sure their finance is in place when they start their course.