Funding a post-graduate course in UK-How?

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Madangan

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Posting this for a friend

Friend has secured a masters course in a UK university-one year taught course with dissertation

Friend has circa €3000 in savings fro working through college etc... Fees in UK will be in region of €7000 and obviously he then needs to find accomodation and then live.

He has no-one to guarantor funding from a bank here. Parents credit rating is shot due to their business folding with debts in last year. He has no previous borrowings as until now has been able to obtain summer and weekend work in Ireland and has lived frugally as a student. This summer all job ops dried up and has been on dole.

UB max will lend €6,500 and have not said even that is available. BOI have not indicated how much is available but require guarantors.

Has anyone any realistic ideas. If UB comes through friend would be able to pay fees and rent till Christmas assuming he did not need to eat, cannot rely on possibility of getting work in London; will look for it but no guarantee to find part-time work while pursuing full time masters, if fees are paid and then he cannot afford to live then fees will be lost and loan will still exist and friend will be back here on dole

Anyone with any realistic suggestions or knowledge of other lenders attitudes????
 
Has he checked here?

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Educati...tyAndHigherEducation/StudentFinance/index.htm

As an EU student he will qualify for Student Loans, I'm not 100% certain off the top of my head if tuition fee loans are available for post grad, you'll have to look it up.

The odds of not being able to get some form of part-time work in London are very low, assuming he can walk & talk and has some intelligence he will get work of some description.

Edited to add: has he considered doing his post grad in Scotland? SAAS tend to be more favourable to EU students.
 
I used Co-Op for my Post Grad loan - If i remember correctly there are only 3 banks, Barclays, Nat West and Co-Op to do this. Co-Op at the time had lower interest rate. Also, see if there is funding scholarships for courses. I initially had an ESPRC scholarship in place to cover all fees and living expenses (£12,000 per year) for my course (i was offerred a dererred place, went travelling and the college lost funding :(). If your friend gets the course, go to the library and find the book on funding options - can't remember the exact name of it, btu has all the different grants available in the UK which many are available for EU students.
 
To be on the safe side it might be worth majoring about deferring the place for a year to get the funds together and then taking up the place with some savings to fall back on
 
Thanks all.

Increasingly looking likely my pal will not be able to do the masters.
Deferring doesn't exactly help as he is on dole here, been turned down for jobs he was too well qualified for and no jobs available Bank of Ireland refused to consider giving a loan, UB are taking forever but even the max they give is less than the fees alone.

All very well say get a job in uk but after Xmas the I year degree course becomes very intensive so there will be very limited time for working

It brings it home to me how lucky I was that my parents couyld afford to help. This person has worked his ass off in college and every weekend and holiday since old enough to work. Never failed exams earned all spending money himself so as not to be a burden to self employed struggling parents, got great degree in very trying circumstances and has managed to get 3 days work in a fastfood restaurant one week this summer and assorted babysitting work...

Its depressing

Grants dont apply for non uk students for this type of masters
 
what's the course in? sometimes there are other funding options available through funds like the rowntree foundation and other philanthropical organisations.
 
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