As universities and colleges across the UK prepare for the new
academic year, next week SLC will be starting to make first term
Maintenance Loan payments.
At SLC, our mission is to enable people to invest in their
futures through further and higher education by providing
trusted, transparent, flexible and accessible student finance
services. We know how exciting this time of year can be for new
and returning students and understand that they have a lot going
on – from moving away from home, preparing for their first weeks,
and of course, planning their finance. We aim to make the payment
process as simple as possible, so that it is one less thing for
them to worry about.
We have already started emailing students to let them know what
they need to do to get ready for payment.
I am really proud of the support that we provide to our students,
and we currently have over one million applications processed and
ready to pay. We are also continuing to process applications that
we received after the deadline. In total, we expect to pay more
than £2billion in Maintenance Loan payments throughout the autumn
months, and as we head into September, I wanted to share my top
five tips for students starting or returning to university.
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The online account. Everything students need
to know is in their online account. This includes the stage of
the application, especially if they applied after the deadline,
and, if they are eligible and the application is approved, what
date a payment is due. Students should check their
online account first before they do anything else.
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Payment communication. If students are due to
receive a payment, they will receive an email
from us explaining how they can help ensure that the payment
process is as seamless as possible. The email includes simple
tips like making sure their bank details are up to date as well
as a reminder that we can only release funding once they have
registered with their university or college.
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Registration Confirmation. We can't make
payments to students until the university or college confirm
that they have registered/enrolled. Students will be invited to
do this by their university or college closer to the course
start date. Once we have this information, we will send a
text message to students a few days before the
expected payment date to let them know that their Maintenance
Loan is on the way.
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Application process. Not all students will get
their full entitlement all at once. It can take six to eight
weeks to process a student finance application, which means
that if they applied late or during Clearing (after our
application deadlines), we may not have their application fully
processed by term start. Our priority is to ensure that all
eligible applicants have some money in place by awarding the
minimum Maintenance Loan amount first, followed by a top-up
payment if students are entitled to more funding.
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Got questions? There is plenty of information,
common questions, videos and much more on our website and social media channels to
help students navigate their student finance journey. Our
contact channels are extremely busy so I would urge students to
check-out these options in the first instance.
This is our busiest time of year, and we are all focused on
ensuring that students receive their payments as universities and
colleges return. It's a key milestone for our organisation, as we
fulfil our role to support students to invest in their future.
So, on behalf of everyone at SLC, I would like to send everyone
our best wishes for the 24/25 academic year.
