Financial support
If the course you're interested in is related to your job, you could ask your employer to help pay
They may be able to pay for all or part of your course costs. If they are unable to help you with course fees, you could ask about time off to study for exams or write assignments.
Teacher training
If you're training to be a teacher, for example, taking the PGCE or Professional Graduate Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector, you may be able to get student loans and grants from the government and a bursary from the Training and Development Agency for Schools. You'll need to check with Student Finance England though, to see whether you can get funding to help pay for your PGCE.
Social work and professional healthcare courses
You may be able to apply for extra or different financial help if you are studying one of our postgraduate social work or professional healthcare courses.
Research degrees
Research Councils such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Medical Research Council offer grants and studentships. Charities and charitable trusts such as the Wellcome Trust provide support for medical research.
Professional and Career Development Loans
These are bank loans that can be used to help pay for work related learning. You can borrow between £300 and £10,000 to help support the cost of up to two years of learning (or three years if it includes one year's relevant unpaid practical work). The Young People's Learning Agency will pay the interest on the loan while you're learning and for one month afterwards.
They can be used to pay course fees or other costs such as travel and living expenses. You can also use them to supplement other forms of support such as grants or bursaries.
Because the Professional and Career Development Loan is a commercial loan product, it should only be considered as an option once all other student funding options have been investigated.
For further information on financial assistance to support your learning, please visit www.direct.gov.uk/adultlearning or contact Careers Advice on 0800 100 900. Our learning provider registration number is 2869.
Other loans and awards
You could apply for a study loan at your local high street bank.
If you're doing an MBA, the Association of Masters in Business Administration can arrange loans.
Institutions such as the Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering and the British Academy offer awards.
Contact us
Contact us and we’ll talk you through it all:
Student Record and Fees Unit
T: 01332 591063
E: studentrecordsandfees@derby.ac.uk
Other sources of information
The postgraduate finance pages of the Directgov website have a lot more general information about how to fund your course.
Student profiles
Allison Toner, MSc Criminal Investigation, tells us of the advantages to studying this particular course at Derby and what the course has to offer.