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Student Finance for BA and HND Courses


Nana Lily

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I have been following the upper school threads with great interest as my DD will be going through auditions next year. Well done to all those with a 'yes', good luck to those still waiting and commiserations to those who haven't made it yet.

 

Hoping someone can shed some light on the financing for theses courses. I understand you can apply for student finance, but think on one thread someone mentioned the normal £9000 is cut down to £6000 as some of the schools are classed as 'private'?

 

Any information gratefully welcomed.

 

NL

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Student finance is split into 3.

Tuition fees, maintenance loan and maintenance grant.

The first 2 are repayable and the grant is means tested and doesn't have to be repaid.

The tuition fees are paid directly to the school in question over 3 installments.

The loan is paid to the student in 3 installments over the year.

The tuition fees and loan are then repaid once the student has paid employment earning over £21,000 per year. It is taken from their wages and is a percentage of their income. I think the debt is written off if not paid off in 30 years.

Please correct me if this is not accurate but I writing this from memory. There is a student finance website for all information.

There is interest on these loans aswell but as I understand it, it is the cheapest loan you can get unless it is from the Bank of Mum&Dad.

The loans are not enough to cover all costs so the difference needs to come from the parents or sometimes the schools will offer bursaries which are means tested.

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Student finance is split into 3.

Tuition fees, maintenance loan and maintenance grant.

The first 2 are repayable and the grant is means tested and doesn't have to be repaid.

The tuition fees are paid directly to the school in question over 3 installments.

The loan is paid to the student in 3 installments over the year.

The tuition fees and loan are then repaid once the student has paid employment earning over £21,000 per year. It is taken from their wages and is a percentage of their income. I think the debt is written off if not paid off in 30 years.

Please correct me if this is not accurate but I writing this from memory. There is a student finance website for all information.

There is interest on these loans aswell but as I understand it, it is the cheapest loan you can get unless it is from the Bank of Mum&Dad.

The loans are not enough to cover all costs so the difference needs to come from the parents or sometimes the schools will offer bursaries which are means tested.

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Thank you friends.

 

I think I am correct in saying that the Student loan will cover the £9000 fees for Central and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, but what about Ballet West and Ballet Theatre UK (pending accreditation) how much will student finance pay towards these fees?

 

Thanks

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Hello.Don`t know if this is of any help at all to people,but I will explain our situation. My 17 year old son is at a further education college,just about to finish his first year. He is studying a BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care. This qualification,if you get a mainly Merit or Distinction profile is equivalent to 3 A Levels,and he could go straight to university after it. But the same college he is at also offer the same course but the next level up. This is the BTEC Higher National Diploma. It lasts for 3 years.You spend the first 2 years studying for the HNC [the Higher National Certificate],which is academically equivalent to the first year of a degree.If you pass this sufficiently you can "top up " this qualification and complete the one year HND [Higher National Diploma].This is equivalent to the second year of a degree. So, many people can transfer directly after achieving their HND into the final,year three of a degree at university studying the same or a very similar course. Funding is provided,and that is great. The problem we found out about recently is this. IF [and he wants to] were to continue on in college for the full 3 years of the HND course,because the HND is a Higher Education course, we have been told, that he will receive not a single penny in tuition fees for the first year of his university course [i.e.] loan if he wanted to go to uni [which he doesn`t ,so that`s OK].This is because the student cannot do the same academic level twice and get funding for it twice.So the first year at uni would have to be completely funded by ourselves. I guess this is why so many students choose to go away to uni at 18,because if they stayed at the local college to do a Higher Education course instead they would not be entitled to any funding for the first year.The type of courses  that Sean potentially wants to do,you HAVE to start the degree in the first year.You cannot just go directly into the second year. Of course,a degree in dance or something more vocational might be completely different to someone who wants to get a degree in Social Work or Occupational Health,for example,where it is academically very rigourous and you have to do all 3 years of the degree. But I would double check to make sure as it really threw a spanner in the works when I found out,that we would have to pay the £9,000 in fees ourselves and would not qualify for a student loan . This is also worth bearing in mind to anyone who is thinking maybe a few years down the line when they have stopped dancing of possibly going to university at a later date.

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Having just read the BTUK website the tuition fees are £10,500 per year and I think the maximum fees the student finance will pay is £9000 if it is a recognised degree course or £6000 if HND so the difference will have to be paid from somewhere?

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My understanding is the same as Spanners in that the amount of funding depends on whether it is a private college or university or a public one.  As far as I am aware the difference between the two lies in how they are funded but I believed that a public university had maximum fees of £9000 and that private colleges could charge more than that if they wished and that students at private colleges or on private courses could get £6000 loan for fees and were eligible for the maintenance loan.  I stress that I do not know the situation for Ballet West or Ballet Theatre UK and that the above is gleaned from what I have read doing my own research.  I am fairly certain though that colleges like Arts Ed and Mountview that offer musical theatre courses charge in excess of £12k fees but their students can only get a £6k loan and maintenance loan so they certainly do have to top up fees.

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Are all the vocational schools classed as 'private'?

 

If they are, then everyone must be in the same boat for dance training etc.

 

I might have got the wrong end of the stick but I think you can get student finance for HND - £6000, BA - £9000. Anything in fees above that has to be found by parents! Depending on location maintenance loan towards accommodation/living expenses i.e. get slightly more if education provider has London postcode. If parents income is below a certain level you can apply for a maintenance grant too.

 

I think those schools that have a Trinity Diploma qualification are funded via DaDA.  

Edited by Jane
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Almost all are classes as 'private' I believe with financial help offered to students either as student loans or DADAs.  Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is different and is a normal university with standard student funding for ballet as with any other course.  The other exceptions are the schools which are affiliated to the Conservatoire of Dance and Drama in England (includes Central Ballet School and Rambert).  As I said before it is something to do with how these institutions are funded that determines how students are funded.  If you look at the UCAS website you will see that there are plenty of universities that offer degrees in dance - just not what most of our DCs are looking for.

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Does it make a difference if a college has linked up with a university. For example the college where dh used to teach the students became part of the university of Greenwich (I think).

 

We would be paying around £13k per year at ordinary academic school for dd anyway, vocational at 16 if she gets in/still decides its what she wants then could work out better for us especially as we are under the dada income threshold of £70k though who's to say what that will be in 4 years time.

 

I think more & more colleges/ schools will start offering degrees or HNDs instead ofvthe Trinity diploma. It's already starting to happen.

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