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How much will your university or college course cost?

The two types of cost you'll face in higher education are:

• tuition fees
• your accommodation and day-to-day living expenses

Tuition fees

Tuition fees help pay for the costs of running a university or college - salaries for teaching staff, maintaining the buildings and so on.

If you’re doing a full time course, this page tells you the maximum amount you’ll be charged for tuition fees. Exactly what you’ll have to pay depends on which university or college you go to, which course you do, and where in the UK you study.

For students who started a full-time course before September 2006, maximum tuition fees will also vary depending on personal circumstances.

Full-time students: how much will your tuition fees be?

If you started your course from September 2006

If your course started in or after September 2006 - or you haven’t started yet - the maximum tuition fees you can be charged for 2008/2009 is £3,145.

If you started your course before September 2006

For students who started before September 2006 - and many who started in September 2006 after taking a gap year in 2005/2006 - the maximum contribution towards tuition fees is £1,255 for 2008/2009.

Find out how much your tuition fees will be

You can find out about tuition fees for individual courses through the UCAS website.

• Search for information about tuition fees Opens new window

Tuition fees for part-time students

There are no regulations stating how much universities can charge in tuition fees for part-time courses. Check with your university or college how much they charge - it’s also worth finding out how much the fees are likely to rise over the length of your course.

Accommodation and other living costs

There are a number of things to take into account when you’re working out your living costs. Your costs will be higher if you live away from home, and higher still if you live away from home and study in London.

Living costs for full-time students include:

• accommodation - this is likely to be your single biggest expense if you’re living away from home
• food
• household bills - gas, electricity, water rates, phone, TV licence, contents insurance (some of these will be covered by your rent in you live in halls of residence)
• clothes
• travel
• socialising
• leisure and sport
• study costs - such as books, materials and field trips for your course

• Find out how living costs add up on the NUS website Opens new window

Help with the costs of university

There’s financial support available to help with tuition fees, and you may qualify for help with your accommodation and living costs. Follow the relevant link below to find out what you can get.

• Full-time students: getting started
• Student finance: part-time students

Budgeting

When you’ve worked out how much higher education is going to cost and how much help you’ll get, you’re ready to draw up a budget:

• try to work out a weekly or monthly budget and stick to it
• remember that any grant or loan you receive is meant to last you until the beginning of the next term - including holidays

Follow the links below for more advice on budgeting.

• Work out a budget with the UCAS cost of living calculator Opens new window
• Avoiding over-commitment (money, tax and benefits section)
• Budgeting (money, tax and benefits section)

More useful links

• Reviewing your personal finances (money, tax and benefits section)