Northern Irish students and studying in Northern Ireland
Just a couple of things to be aware of. Firstly, although the support package (loans, grants, fee loans etc.) is broadly the same, lucky people from Northern Ireland get a slightly bigger maintenance grant than those from England – £3,335 rather than £2,835.
To make up the difference, the amount of loan they get is reduced by up to £1,700 rather than up to £1,200 – basically, they get the same amount of money to live on as students from England, but those from the poorest homes will get more as a grant rather than a loan and so won’t have to pay as much back. Not bad, eh?
The only other remotely significant differences are administrative – the things that are known as LEAs in England and Wales are called Education & Library Boards (ELBs) in Northern Ireland.
There’s a handy website with all the information and forms necessary – www.education-support.org.uk. For online applications, ELB contact details and more info, see www.studentfinanceni.co.uk which does much the same kind of thing for Northern Ireland that www.studentfinancedirect.co.uk does in England.
More in this section:
Students from Different parts of the UK
Last updated on: 13 August 2008