Students resident in Scotland enrolling for Post Graduate distance learning courses will be able to apply for Tuition fee loans of £5,500 for next year. Full-time distance learning postgraduate students will also be able to access a £4,500 living cost loan for the first time. The expansion of support could benefit more than 2,500 students.

Currently up to £10,000 is available for any taught postgraduate course up to full Masters level at any Scottish higher education institute (HEI): £5,500 for fees and £4,500 for living costs.

In 2017 143,110 full-time students across higher education benefited from £834.8 million in support.

Shirley-Anne Somerville,Further & Higher Education Minister in the Scottish Government said:

“Undergraduates in Scotland already have free tuition, saving tens of thousands of pounds over the course of a degree compared to those in the rest of the UK.

“This funding builds on that by expanding help to postgraduates to fund the cost of their fees. Expanding access to tuition fee loans and living cost loans could benefit up to 2,500 students across the country and enable more people to consider studying for postgraduate qualifications.

“We want to make further and higher education as accessible as possible and this positive step will help more people overcome the financial barriers to gaining new qualifications.”

Funding for postgraduate loans is different in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

To find out more about postgraduate study loans in Scotland visit:Student Awards Agency Scotland