Student loans and maintenance grants are probably the last thing you want to think about right now. But, unfortunately you’ve got to keep on top of it or you could miss out on some very handy cash. We have some tips to help guide you through the funding maze, details of unusual bursaries and how to pay-off the loan once you've got it.

What you need to do to get your hands on the government’s cash

Once you’ve got your UCAS offers, log on to Student Finance Direct to register as a student and complete the application form (PN1) for higher education support. If you live in Scotland apply via the Student Awards Agency in Scotland, in Wales Student Finance Wales, and if you’re in Northern Ireland the Education and Libraries Board.

Return the form to your Local Authority. In England you can find the address by searching with your post code, in Scotland it will be your local Unitary Authority, your local County Council in Wales or your local Education and Libraries Board in Northern Ireland.

Make sure you fill in the form on time or you may be left facing thousands of pounds of extra charges, once you've done that your council will pay your fees. You don’t have to do anything else, as the Student Loans Company will pay your fees directly to the uni.

The Local Authority will also use the form to assess your financial circumstances. This determines the amount of money you could receive in a loan and/or grant. If your household income (the money your parents earn) is less than around £17,500 you should be eligible for a full maintenance grant of up to £2,765 a year. You won’t have to repay a penny of this grant. If your household income is between £17,501 and £37,425 you should be eligible for a partial grant.

If you’re not eligible for a grant you can get a student loan. The amount of money you can receive depends on whether you live at home or away and the income of your family, you also get extra if you are going to study in London.

The exact figures will change but in 2006/7 the amount provided was between £2,562 and £6,170 each year.

Unis can also help you out with cash

Since the government introduced top-up-fees, every university that charges up to £3,070 a year in fees (93% of them) has to provide extra funding for students from underprivileged backgrounds.

The size of these "opportunity bursaries" vary considerably between different universities. If you are still considering which uni to go to, check out which one could give you the most cash. Oxford University offers £4,000 to first year students with a household income below £17,500, whilst Roehampton University provides a maximum bursary of just £500.

Luckily, you don’t have to do anything to register yourself for this entitlement as the uni will be automatically informed of your circumstances by your Local Authority.

Bursaries

If you’re the next Steve Redgrave or Vanessa Mae there are plenty of specific scholarships, just have a quick search on Google. But, there are still plenty of bursaries available to the rest of us, Scholarship Search will help you find ones that apply to you.

Your university may also offer course-specific bursaries to minority groups. Try searching the university’s website to see if any apply to you. If you can’t find any, don’t give up, you can find funding in the most unusual places. For example, the Dancing Dragon Chinese restaurant in Oxford provides eight bursaries of £1,000 to students at Oxford Brookes.

Paying it all back

Unfortunately, after all the fun of uni you have to start paying back the money you’ve borrowed.

Don’t worry about it too much just yet, you only have to start paying back when you’re earning over £15,000 a year and repayments can't begin until the April after you leave university.

If you’re earning over £15,000 you will have to pay 9% of your income to the Student Loans Company. For example, if you’re earning £20,000 you will repay £8.65 per week.

Repayments will be automatically deducted from your pay until the loan is paid off. If your earnings fall below £15,000, the repayments will stop. Not to overly depress you, but if after 25 years if you still haven’t earned enough to pay off your loan the government will write it off.

You can repay your loan at a quicker rate by making additional payments. Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com, advises against making extra repayments as “a loan this cheap shouldn’t really be paid off more quickly than is necessary”.

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