Student Finance for 2012 entry

Tuition fees for 2012 entry for UK/EU degree students
Financial support for cost of living expenses for UK degree students
Information for Students from England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland
Students living in England
Students living in Wales
Students living in Northern Ireland
Students living in Scotland
EU students
LIPA's National Scholarship Programme Award 2012
Tuition fees for 2012 entry for international degree students
Tuition fees for 2012 entry for Foundation Certificates
Free places for UK students on Foundation Certificate courses 2012
Audition fee waiver and travel grants for 2012 entry

Tuition fees for 2012 entry for UK/EU degree students

Like many other UK universities, LIPA will be charging a tuition fee of £9,000 a year for UK/EU full-time undergraduates starting degree courses in 2012. The fee may rise with inflation in subsequent years. We know that this is a big investment but it’s important to remember that you do not have to pay this money upfront when you enrol at LIPA.

Most full-time students will be able to take out a tuition fee loan for each year of their course. This loan is not means-tested which means that your household income will not affect whether you get it or not. You don’t have to start paying your loan back until the April after you leave LIPA and even then only if you are working and earning more than £21,000 a year. Your monthly repayment will be a small percentage of your income so it will be affordable.

Your tuition fee loan covers all your tuition costs and will be paid directly to LIPA. This means you only have to budget for your living costs.

Financial support for cost of living expenses for UK degree students

Maintenance Loans are also available to help with your cost of living expenses and you may be eligible for extra support such as bursaries and grants, which don’t have to be paid back. Extra support is also available for those with special circumstances, for instance if you have children or adult dependents, a disability, mental-health condition or a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia or dyspraxia. Information about loans for living costs and non-repayable grants is provided in the leaflet produced by BIS, entitled Facts on financial support for full-time students studying in 2012. See document downloads for a copy of this.

Information for Students from England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland

You should be eligible for a tuition fee loan and maintenance loan provided that you have been ordinarily resident in the UK for the three years immediately before starting the course and that you have ‘settled status’ in the UK (meaning you live permanently in the UK without the Home Office placing any restrictions on how long you stay), and that you have not studied a Higher Education course before (e.g. an HND/HNC or part or all of a degree course). If you already hold an honours degree, or another qualification at the same level, you will not qualify for the tuition fee loan or support to cover your living expenses. Similarly, if you hold an HND or HNC qualification and you are offered a place on the first year of one of our degree programmes, this will impact on your eligibility for the first year of your funding here.

Provided you are eligible for a tuition fee loan and maintenance loan, you may also be eligible for various bursaries and grants, which do not have to be repaid.

Students living in England

To find more information about student finance please visit www.direct.gov.uk/studentfinance

The fastest and easiest way is to apply online at www.direct.gov.uk/studentfinance

Student Finance England provides the service for online applications in 2012. If you apply online for the parts of the finance package that depend on household income, your parent or partner can support your application by supplying their financial information online. If you prefer to apply on paper, using form PN1, you may be asked to provide evidence of your household income for a specific year with your application. Please read the information and guidelines carefully. You need to fill in and submit your application for student finance before 31st May 2012 to be sure you have your money when you start your course.

Students living in Wales

You can apply either online through www.studentfinancewales.co.uk or using a paper application form.

You can obtain further information from your Local Authority (LA) or by going to www.studentfinancewales.co.uk Whether you apply on paper or online, you will be required to submit certain pieces of evidence to your LA and these will be detailed on your application. If you fail to provide the information requested, payment of your student support will be delayed. New students must submit applications for student finance by 11th May 2012.

Students living in Northern Ireland

You can apply online through www.studentfinanceni.co.uk or using a paper application form, either obtained online or by asking for Form PN1 and accompanying guidance from your Education and Library Board (ELB). It is very important that the ELB receive your completed funding application form with all the appropriate evidence by 4th May 2012.

Students living in Scotland

A Tuition Fee Loan is available, together with a range of other loans and bursaries if you are studying outside Scotland. These are outlined in detail at www.saas.gov.uk
To apply for any loans and bursaries, you must complete an Application for Student Finance online to the SAAS. To ensure your funding is in place for the start of your course, you should submit a correctly completed application online to SAAS by 30th June 2012.

EU students

If you are from an EU country outside the UK you may be eligible to take out a tuition fee loan but are unlikely to be able to take out a maintenance loan. You should check your eligibility by visiting www.direct.gov.uk/studentfinance-EU. Broadly speaking, to qualify for a Tuition Fee Loan you must be an EU national, or the family member of an EU national and you must not have studied a Higher Education course before (e.g. an HND/HNC or part or all of a degree course). If you already hold an honours degree, or another qualification at the same level, you will not qualify for the tuition fee loan. Some EU students may also be eligible to apply for additional financial support. To find out more please visit www.direct/gove.uk/studentfinance-EU

LIPA's National Scholarship Programme Award 2012

LIPA is participating in the Government's National Scholarship Programme to help with the costs of going to university.

If you are a full-time student from England, our LIPA National Scholarship Programme awards a £2,000 discount against your fees and a £1,000 cash award in year one of your studies. If you are a full-time non-UK EU student, our National Scholarship Programme awards a £2,000 discount against your fees in year one of your studies.

We have 16 awards available to students starting in September 2012. To be eligible to apply for an award you will need to meet the following criteria:

You must have a declared household residual income of £25,000 or less;
Your permanent home address is in England. This means that your permanent address (not a term-time address) must be in England, OR you must be a non-UK EU student;
You must be entering year one of degree-level study (level 4).

Meeting the criteria does not guarantee you an award. Priority will be given to students from:

Students who demonstrate they are in the greatest financial need;
Students from neighbourhoods where participation in higher education is low;
Students who have been in the care system.

You will not be eligible for the LIPA National Scholarship Programme, irrespective of your income, if you are a student who is:

Transferring in from another institution;
Studying for a qualification that is equivalent or less to one they have already achieved;
Having fees paid or part-paid through a scholarship arrangement.

To apply, you need to complete and a submit a LIPA NSP application form to LIPA by 31st May 2012. This can be found in the downloads box on the left hand side of this page. In addition to completing this application form, you must apply for means-tested student support from Student Finance England and give consent to share your financial information in order that your declared household income level may be verfiied. If you do not do this, we will not be able to consider your application. You must apply to Student Finance England and supply all required evidence to them by their deadline of 31st May 2012.

Tuition fees for 2012 entry for Foundation Certificates

For 2012/13 entry, the tuition fee for these courses is £8,950. We do not receive any funding from the government for providing the Foundation Certificate courses, so (regardless of nationality) you have to pay these tuition fees and your living costs and will be unable to get loans or grants from the UK government to cover either of these. We request a 25% deposit of the tuition fee, which is likely to be payable at the end of May 2012, depending on the date of your offer. This is paid online. The remaining tuition fee is also payable online prior to the start of the teaching year in September. Depending on your funding arrangements, an instalment agreement may be available.Terms and conditions are provided on the LIPA application form.

Free places for UK students on Foundation Certificate courses

We have up to two free places available on our Foundation Certificate courses in 2012. However, as these courses are not eligible for government support, students still need to pay for their living costs themselves. They will not be eligible to take out loans or grants from the government to cover these costs.

The free places are for UK students from a household where the gross annual income is less than £25,000, and who have been offered a place on one of our Foundation Certificate courses.

To be eligible, students must:
1) Be a UK student from a household where the gross income is less than £25,000
2) Be prepared to pay a £500 deposit before enrolment (this is refundable on successful completion of the course) and able to pay their cost of living expenses
3) Be interested in continuing onto study a degree at LIPA after completing the course
4) Not already have taken part or all of a course of higher education such as a degree or postgraduate qualification.

Places are awarded to those who demonstrate that they are in the greatest financial need and who also match criteria that enable us to widen access to our courses, such as living in a neighbourhood where participation in Higher Education is low.

As we have a limited amount of free places available, in circumstances where students’ financial circumstances are judged to be the same, the final decision may need to take the students’ ability into consideration.

Students need to complete a Free Place Application Form and submit this with appropriate supporting evidence. This can be found in the downloads box on the left hand side of this page.

Audition fee waiver and travel grants for 2012 entry

As part of our Access agreement for 2012-13, we have introduced a new audition fee waiver and travel grant scheme for UK students intending to join us in September 2012.
This is intended to encourage more UK applicants, who come from areas where participation in Higher Education is traditionally low, to attend our auditions and interviews. We are able to identify eligible applicants, based on postcode data. Therefore, all eligible applicants who we wish to invite to an audition or interview event at LIPA are automatically offered the audition fee waiver and/or travel grant.

To find out more about the scheme please read our document entitled: Frequently Asked Questions: LIPA’s new audition fee waivers and travel grants for 2012 entry. This can be found in the downloads box on the left hand side of this page.

Downloads