Student Finance England – ‘How to’ guide
This guide will provide you with answers to the most common questions that undergraduate students are currently asking us.
Applies to England
Check our current timescales page to find out when to expect an update on your application or on information you’ve sent!
Checking the status of your application
Once you’ve applied, you’ll want to keep up to date with the progress of your application.
How to check the status of your application
Visit our guidance page for more information on checking the status of your application.
Change your university, college or course details
You may need to update your university, college or course details if you change your mind about where or what you want to study, or if your circumstances change. Follow these steps if the start date for the course you initially applied for has not passed yet:
- Sign in to your online account at www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login
- Select ‘Undergraduate student finance applications’
- Select the application you wish to change
- Under the heading ‘Manage your student finance’, select ‘View and manage your applications’
- Select ‘Change your application’
- Select ‘Change your application’ again
- Select ‘University/college and course’
If the course you initially applied for has already started, you’ll need to ask your university or college to send us a request to update your university, college or course details on your application.
It can take up to 6 weeks to approve any changes to your application, so it’s important to make any changes straight away. To ensure we can process your changes as quickly as possible, we ask you do not contact us during this time.
How to change your student finance application
For more information, visit our updating your student finance details page.
Change how much Maintenance Loan you’ve requested
After you’ve applied for student finance, you may want to change the amount of Maintenance Loan you’ve asked for. You should be able to do this in your online account up until one month before the end of the academic year.
You should follow these steps:
- Sign in to your online account at www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login
- Select ‘Undergraduate student finance applications’
- Select the application you wish to change
- Under the heading ‘Manage your student finance’, select ‘View and manage your applications’
- Select ‘Change your application’
- Select ‘Change your application’ again
- Select ‘Loan amount(s)’
It will normally take 4 to 6 weeks to process the change but could take up to 8 weeks between July and September during our busy period.
If you’re unable to change your loan request amount online, you’ll need to compete and submit a Loan Request Form instead. You’ll be able to get this from your online account.
If you’re asked to upload evidence for your student finance application
You should only upload evidence to your online account if we’ve asked you to do so and only upload your documents once. If you upload evidence we haven’t asked for, or we get more than one copy of the same thing, it could delay your application.
If you need to send us more than one document, it can help to upload these together. This means we can review all of your evidence at the same time and process your application quicker.
Follow these steps to upload evidence to your account:
- Sign in to your online account at www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login
- Select ‘Undergraduate student finance applications’
- Select the application you wish to upload evidence for
- Under the heading ‘Manage your student finance’, select ‘Upload supporting evidence’
- Follow the instructions to upload a file from your computer or mobile phone, the file cannot be larger than 16MB
If you’ve uploaded evidence and ‘your actions to complete’ don’t update, it doesn’t mean we don’t have your documents. Once we’ve checked what you’ve sent, we’ll update your actions list.
You don’t need to contact us to check that we’ve got your documents, if we need anything else, we’ll be in touch.
For more information, visit our evidence page.
Cancel a student finance application
You may need to cancel your application if you’ve changed your mind about going to university or college, or if you’ve accidentally completed the wrong type of application.
To cancel your application, follow these steps:
- Sign in to your online account at www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login
- Select ‘Undergraduate student finance applications’
- Select the application you wish to cancel
- Under the heading ‘Manage your student finance’, select ‘View and manage your applications’
- Select ‘Cancel your application’
- Select ‘Cancel your application’ again to confirm
If you’ve already registered on your course and want to cancel your student finance application, you’ll need to contact your university or college to do this for you.
Registering on your course
You need to register/enrol on your course at the start of your first term each year, otherwise we won’t be able to send you any payments!
Check your university or college’s website or contact a member of staff who works there for information on how to register or enrol on your course. Usually, you can do this online without having to visit your university or college.
Paying your tuition fees
Your Tuition Fee Loan is paid directly to your university or college in three instalments during the academic year.
We cannot make any tuition fee payments to them until they have confirmed that you’re attending your course. They will automatically send this information to us after your course has started.
If you’re studying on a distance learning course, your university or college will usually confirm your attendance two weeks after the course start date. As a result, it can take 3 to 4 weeks for your Tuition Fee Loan to be paid.
If your university or college have confirmed your attendance in error, they should send us an update confirming the error and correct the details on your application. This will not affect your future entitlement to student finance.
You do not need to contact us to confirm your attendance.
Update your bank details in your online account
It’s important to keep your bank details up to date to make sure you get your payments at the start of each term. A few points to remember before updating them:
- we can only make payments to a UK bank or building society account
- the account must be in your own name – we cannot make payments into third party accounts under any circumstance
- if you’re expecting a payment - we require 4 working days’ notice to change your bank details so that the payment is made to your new bank account. Any changes made within this time will not take effect before the payment is due
It’s quick and easy to update them online when you need to, just follow these steps:
- Sign in to your online account at www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login
- Select ‘Your personal details’ from the menu at the top of the page
- Next to ‘Bank account details’, select ‘Change’
- Confirm your old bank or building society details for security
- Enter your new bank or building society account details
Check your payment schedule and amounts
To help you budget and prepare for your next payment, it will help to know how much and when you’re getting paid. You can check this in your online account, follow these steps:
- Sign in to your online account at www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login
- Select ‘Undergraduate student finance applications’
- Select the application for the payments you wish to check
- Under the heading ‘Manage your student finance’, select ‘View your payments’
How to check your payment schedule
For more information, visit our payment page.
Support a student finance application with your household income details
If your child or partner has applied for extra Maintenance Loan, we’ll email you to ask for details of your household income. We’ll use this to work out how much student finance they can get.
Follow the instructions in the email to give us your details.
If you don’t receive an email, or you’re supporting more than one student, follow these steps to give us your details:
- Sign in or create an online account at www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login.
- Select ‘Undergraduate student finance applications’.
- Choose the academic year you’re giving your details for.
- Under the heading ‘Start something else’, select ‘Support a student’s application for student finance’.
- Scroll down and select ‘Support an application for student finance’.
- Type in your child or partner’s details so we can link you to their application.
If you’re asked to upload evidence to support a student finance application
After you’ve provided details about your household income, we may contact you to ask for evidence. If this happens, you can upload the evidence to us through your online account. Follow these steps if we request evidence from you:
- Sign in to your online account at www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login
- Under the heading ‘Manage your student finance’, select ‘Upload supporting evidence’
- Select ‘Upload evidence’
- Follow the instructions to upload a file from your computer or mobile phone, the file cannot be larger than 16MB
Keep in mind, you should only send evidence to us if we’ve asked you to do so, otherwise it could delay the student’s application!
Visit our guidance page for more information on supporting an application.
Find out who can get student finance, how much you can get and how to apply
Visit www.gov.uk/student-finance for information on:
- who can get student finance
- how much you can get
- extra funding available for students with a disability or dependants
- how to apply
For further information on student finance, visit studentfinance.campaign.gov.uk/.
Reset your log in details
If it’s been a while since you signed in to your online account, you may have forgotten some details. Don’t worry, you can reset or recover these details quickly and easily online:
- Visit www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login
- Select the green ‘Start now’ button
- Select ‘Forgotten your email address or CRN?’ or ‘Forgotten your password?’
- Then just follow the instructions to recover or reset your details
How to reset your password and secret answer
Update your contact details
It’s important you keep your contact details such as your email address and mobile number up to date in case we need to get in touch with important information about your account. It’s quick and easy to update this through your online account, just follow these steps:
- Sign in to your online account at www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login
- Select ‘Your personal details’ from the menu at the top of the page
- Select ‘Change’ next to whichever details you wish to update
- Enter your new contact details and select ‘Continue’
How to update your personal details
For more information, visit our updating your student finance details guidance page.
Updates to this page
Published 24 June 2022Last updated 5 November 2024 + show all updates
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Information has been added about how customers can update how much Maintenance Loan they've requested.
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Added link to current timescales page
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Updated link to 'How to check your payment schedule' film
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Updates have been made to 'If you’re asked to upload evidence for your student finance application' section
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Added guidance on supporting more than one student.
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Updates have been made to the 'Change your university, college or course details' section
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Added new section, 'Paying your tuition fees'.
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Added YouTube film to Payment schedule section
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A YouTube walkthrough film has been added under 'Change your university, college or course details'
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When uploading evidence for a student finance application, you can now upload files up to 16MB in size.
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First published.