Student Finance as an MA

Managing your finances as an MA student will be slightly different then what you found as and Undergraduate. Whether you are going to be renting university accommodation, privately renting or staying at home there are a few things that you will need to consider when it comes to finance.

Student Finance

As a Postgraduate student you may be able to apply to for a Master’s student loan from the government. The process for applying for this will be similar to the process of filling out the application for the government undergraduate loan. You are able to use the same account which will save a bit of time but if you don’t have an account it is a simple process which will require you to have some proof of identity to hand.

Rather then receiving a tuition loan and living loan as with an undergraduate student loan, as a Master’s student you will receive one lump sum split up into three separate amounts. You will be responsible for deciding how you use this money if you have other funding sources you may choose this to be your amount to live on or to cover your tuition fees.

Tuition Fees

It is your responsibility now to manually send your tuition to your university which for Warwick University is is via your Student Records Online account. For Warwick you can apply for your amount to be split into three payments to line up with your loan and more information about this can be found here.

The money you use to pay for you tuition does not necessarily need to come from your government loan. It could be from other sources which you will need to prepare and plan the other sources this money will be coming from.

Scholarships / Funding

There are options to find funding sources for an MA through scholarships and bursaries. With a little bit of research you will be able to find some funding sources which may be based on your background, current working situation or subject area. Many will just be filling out a form but some will require a short essay in which you may be chosen out of a pool to receive a bursary. Warwick has a page dedicated to this which can be found here but doing your own research out there you may find others to apply to. If you are concerned you will not apply/receive the bursary there is no harm in applying anyway the worst that can happen is they say no.

Earning Money

Unitemps is a good site to be able to find temporary jobs and once your account is set up it makes the whole process a lot of easier. There are a range of different jobs that come up so it’s a good idea to keep checking regularly.

Warwick Research SONA is a great way to gain some vouchers for taking part in different research surveys. You can sign up to different studies and at the moment you can complete them online at your leisure. After completing the study you will receive via your email an Amazon voucher which is always helpful for ordering books or stationary.

To find out more about finances as a Postgraduate you can check out Warwick’s page here