This article will provide important information on the support available while you are on placement.

 

Students starting a work placement (sandwich) year in academic year 2023/24

Tuition fees for Home (UK) students on a placement year in 2023/24 are £925, and you can still apply for a tuition fee loan to cover these.

Students from England can also still apply for a reduced rate maintenance loan of £3,022 (unless you will be living in the family home, in which case you can apply for £2,267). This loan is non income-assessed. Payments will still be made in three instalments as in previous years.

 

Exceptions

There are some exceptions where you could be eligible for full funding if your placement falls under

one of the following:

- unpaid service in a hospital or in a public health service laboratory or with a clinical commissioning group in the UK

- unpaid service with a local authority in the UK acting in the exercise of its functions relating to the care of children and young persons, health or welfare, or with a voluntary organisation providing facilities or carrying out activities of a like nature in the UK

- unpaid service with a local authority acting in the exercise of public health functions in the UK

- unpaid service in the prison or probation and aftercare service in the UK

- unpaid research in a UK institution or, in the case of a student attending an overseas institution as a part of their course in an overseas institution

- unpaid service with a Special Health Authority, the NHS Commissioning Board, the National Institute for Care and Excellence, the Health and Social Care Information Centre, a Local Health Board; a Health Board or a Special Health Board in Scotland, or a Health      and Social Services Board in Northern Ireland

- unpaid service in the UK Parliament.

Please note that you will need to provide evidence that you are undertaking one of these placements to Student Finance England or your student funding body.

Social Work, NHS and PGCE students on placement receive the same financial support as they do while attending university.

 

Overseas placements

If you will be travelling abroad for your placement the support you can apply for depends on whether you will be working or studying.

If you are working overseas as an alternative to a UK based work placement you can only apply for the same support as if you were working here, as described above.

If you are studying abroad as part of your course you will need to be registered with and attending a university overseas to receive full support, which can include a maintenance loan of up to £11,427, a maintenance grant (based on household income and for pre 2016 starters only) and possibly assistance towards overseas travel costs.

 

Other things to know

- We sometimes get asked whether a placement year will be funded if you repeat a year of study or studied one year on a different course. The answer is yes, you are entitled to the length of your course plus one additional year minus any previous study. So, if your course is 4 years long (inc placement year), you are entitled to 4 + 1 = 5 years. However, if you have repeated more than once or have two years of previous study on a different course, then that may affect your entitlement.

- If you originally applied for funding for the three-year option of your course instead of the one with a placement year, you can change this when you apply for your funding. If your funding has already been approved, it will give you an option to download a change of     circumstances form where you can notify your student funding body of the change in course length. The university will also do the same.

- If you encounter financial difficulty during your placement year, you can apply to the University Support Fund.

- You are not liable for council tax during a placement year because you are still classed as a full-time student.  

- If you earn over the current tax threshold (£12,570), you will have to pay tax. For further information on this, please visit - https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates