If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Options
student loan
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
how do i find out how much i would get?
i dont need to pay course fees as its an NHS course, but i do need a loan for my living expenses/rent etc...but i cannot find online what sort of amount i would be looking at.
its all so confusing
i dont need to pay course fees as its an NHS course, but i do need a loan for my living expenses/rent etc...but i cannot find online what sort of amount i would be looking at.
its all so confusing
Post edited by JustV on
0
Comments
There's a bit on there where you can calculate your entitlement.
If you're not getting any support towards your living expenses from the NHS then you should be able to get a student maintenance loan. These come from the Student Loan Company though, not the bank.
Have you tried using the calculator on that website link?
my course is paid for and i get a bursary. without a maintenance loan i will defintly not be able to afford it
Reaaaaaallly helpful comment there.
You do know how intense a lot of the NHS courses are don't you? The reason why they're given bursaries? To encourage them to actually pick up the course.
I knew a nurse last year who got roughly the same and struggled to live on it because she couldn't even afford to pay her accomodation up front. She got a job and ended up working about 60 hour weeks, 40 hours in lectures and 20+ out of them, straight through xmas as well.
Sorry but I think it's well out of order to tell someone to 'get on with it' because of the way they get funding, making it out like they've got it easy.
I'm pretty sure however that if you're getting your course fees paid and an NHS bursary then you aren't eligible for a maintenance loan.
Maintenance loans are about £1200 a term, NHS bursarys are more like £500 a month if I remember rightly so you'll be well ahead of most other students.
I think they do have it easy, yes.
I'm in the same position as you my fee's are paid and I get the £510 a month bursery. The only other help I got was my £1000 student overdraft. Apart from that we are not entitled to grants, student loans etc.
Me and the majority of people my age doing my course have just had to get part time jobs and fit uni, assignments and placement hours around them! Although it's best to warn them that you may need the occasional day at the weekend off. But considering on placement you only do one weekend in 4 it's not that bad.
If you were doing the degree you wouldn't be better off. There bursery in the majority of cases is alot lower than diploma students as it's means tested and the student loan they recieve isn't that much either.
I had to do the same when I was still at John Moores and living in halls in Liverpool.
They try and say that nursing accomodation takes into account the bursery and the extra weeks spent in halls but it still worked out that I paid for my rent over 8 months at £411 a month. Considering I only get £500 a month is was a bit of a piss take to say the least! I ended up having to get a job on the bank at a hospital just to get money for food. It was hard to fit the shifts in as sometimes I would be in uni all day, go and do a 12 hour night shift at the hospital then be back in uni for 9 the next day!
It does sound to me like you will actually be getting more money from your bursary than other students get from their maintenance loans. It sounds like it's going to be a case of finding a flexible part time job is the only way forward (like it is for many students).
Nurses generally can't do this, because it's a full time job on top of your study already. Same with teaching. The hours in these degrees are far higher than most others.
As for them having it easy, nurses and teachers aren't sat on their arse in lectures all day, they're doing a job. Changing beds, helping patients, spreading MRSA. I think they deserve to be paid for this, but maybe I'm old fashioned that way.
i think i will just have to find a job for food for money. i need to take my car with me really which means i cant sell it and will have to keep paying for it while i am gone which will take £150 a month out of my bursary straight off. looks like i will have to just save every penny from now till september and then just spend as little as possible!
and someone said about the 43 weeks a year...its 45 at the uni want to go to. so you are right, we have to study/do placement for 45 weeks of the year, we get 4 weeks in summer and 2 weeks at christmas. so screw you to who ever said i'd have it easy...i'd love to see some uni students going to uni for that many weeks of the year, i bet they are there for about 30 weeks maximum!
Try getting on the bank at your trust hospital, it's good money even as a HCA and you get alot of experiance as you get to work on all different types of wards that you may not get to go on for placement. Also you can pretty much choose the hours you want to work. The best times to work are sundays as its double time so your on about £11 an hour and at night where you can easily make £120!
i am starting at the begining again and at a differnt uni.
if i just worked one 12 hour shift on a sunday each week i'm sure i could survive!
im going to try and save £3000 before i go so i can pay off my car, and then i think i will be able to survive
Just a suggestion since it seems like that will be one of your significant outgoings (along with rent & food)
my car payments are the actual repayments for it so even if i get rid of it i will have to still pay it!
i have worked out that if i save £250 a month over the next 11 months i will be able to pay my car off before i go to uni, then i will be able to have £240 to myself from my bursary after rent and if i get a part time job i will be fine, im sure
I graduated 3 years ago after doing a degree in nursing and i'm not attempting to play the hard done by card as i didn't leave uni with student debts, except my student overdraft, unlike other students. However the bursary we are paid is justified by the intensity of the course. Normal degrees span only approximately 6 months of the year, with the rest off, whereas i was off for just 7 weeks of the year, which equates to the amount of annual leave i get now i am qualified. We were in lectures for 25+ hours a week, in comparison to the average of about 15 for other courses. We did not get wednesday afternoons off for sport, and when on placement we worked fulltime weeks as well as completeing asssignments. Our bursary was effectively payment for our placements, because there wasn't really a lot of time for a part time job :no:
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but unless you have actually done the course, you cant really say that we have it easy at all. Your reply just comes across as rude and incredibly unhelpful for the OP.
And just for the record...the reason nursing students are given a bursary is partly to encourage people to take on the course as the nhs is severely lacking nurses....just a shame they are offering hardly any vacancies currently, but that is another rant!
I thought that was just our uni? Does every uni have wednesday afternoon off for sport?
I *think* it's an all uni thing, to encourage physical activity
Your own arguement is hypocritical as if you were following it yourself you couldn't comment on whether your course was any harder or easier than any other because you hadn't actually done it yourself.
Even though nurss do more hours and weeks than what most students do on other courses?
all i wanted to know is what financial help i am entitiled to
I am not trying to say that my course is any easier/harder than any other because as you quite rightly pointed out, i haven't done anything to compare it to. If you read my post properly, what i was saying was that YOU couldn't judge if we had it easy as you haven't done the course! I actually dont think any course has it easy. Even thought the others only span about 6 months, they cram so much into that space, and the students need the holidays to work to get extra cash for the following terms. What i was saying was that in comparison to the amount we work within the NHS during our course, we dont have it easy financially, as you seemed to be implying!
To the OP, good luck with the course :thumb: