Receiving your loan

Managing your money

Your Cost of Attendance (COA) is calculated for one full academic year; 39 weeks for undergraduate students and 52 weeks for postgraduate Masters and PhD students. If you have requested loans up to the full amount of your COA at the start of the year, this is the maximum amount of money you can receive in loans for the full academic year (including Direct Loans and private loans).

This means that if you are an undergraduate student commencing in September/October, the loan amounts paid to you will need to support your studies until the end of June the following calendar year.

If you are a postgraduate taught or postgraduate research student commencing in October your loans will need to support your studies until the end of September the following calendar year.

It is therefore important that you budget and manage your loan amounts to cover your study and living costs for the full academic year. We are only able to start the process to release your loan once you have completed the full registration process, both online and in person. From this point it will take a maximum of 2 weeks for the money to be released. It is therefore important you have sufficient funding to cover your living expenses until you receive your loan disbursement.

Disbursements

Your Direct Loan will be released in two or three equal disbursements; one at the start of each semester or term. Postgraduate taught students receive their loans in three disbursements and undergraduate students receive their loans in two disbursements. PhD students receive their loans in 2 disbursements approximately 6 months apart. When we certify your loan we will notify you of your disbursement dates. The first disbursement cannot be made until you have completed your registration, this includes online registration and your visa checkpoint. Some more information regarding registration and attending a visa checkpoint can be found on our website.

You can only receive your second or third disbursement once it has been confirmed by your academic department you are making satisfactory academic progress.

Deductions

Your loan disbursements are received in US Dollars. Each disbursement is converted to GBP by the University. We will then deduct your tuition fees from your US Direct Loan and/or private loan. If you are living in University Accommodation we will also deduct your accommodation fees. Half of the fees will be deducted from each disbursement for undergraduate and postgraduate research students and a third will be deducted for postgraduate taught students. Once deductions have been made any additional funds remaining will be paid to you. If your loan disbursement does not full cover your University fees (tuition and accommodation if applicable) you will be asked to pay the remaining balance.

Loan payments

Any funds you are due to receive following the deduction of your tuition and accommodation fees will due from a loan disbursement will be paid to your bank account. You will need to confirm your bank details before the first disbursement of an academic year can be released. If you do not have a UK bank account set up we can process the payment to your US bank account. It takes around 5 working days after a payment is made to a UK account for the funds to be available and 10 working days for an international account

You will have to contact the Treasury US Loan Team (treasuryusloans@le.ac.uk) if your bank details change during the academic year.