student life

We are committed to transparent pricing in line with CMA guidance. Your tuition fee covers the core costs associated with your course, including teaching, learning materials, access to college facilities, and compulsory trips.
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We aim to keep as many costs as possible included within your tuition fee, however, there may be additional costs incurred throughout the duration of your studies. Additional, non-optional costs (such as for equipment, uniform or transport) are clearly listed at the outset on each course page to ensure you can make an informed decision. The tuition fee plus the additional non-optional costs represents the total price you will pay. Any additional optional costs (such as for non-compulsory trips or excursions) are available at an additional cost and you will only be charged for them if you specifically select them and agree to pay that optional cost.

Student Finance is changing

For courses starting on or after the 1^st of January 2027, a new higher education funding system for England called the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) will be in place.  The LLE has been designed to make access to student finance more flexible to support you to learn, retrain or upskill even if you have already gained a higher-level (i.e. level 4-6) qualification before.

What You Can Get

You may be able to apply for:

• Tuition Fee Loans to help pay your course tuition fees.
• Maintenance Loans to help with your living costs.

The amount of Tuition Fee Loans and Maintenance Loans you get partly depends on the number of credits you study.

All courses that qualify for funding will be worth a certain number of credits. For example, a year of studying a bachelor’s degree (BA/BSc) full time is usually worth 120 credits. Credit values for eligible courses are published on our course pages on our website.

You can apply for Tuition Fee Loans up to a total amount of £39,160*. This is the same as around 4 years of full-time study or 480 credits.

From September 2026, you will be able to access your student finance account to check how much balance you have in your LLE account (if you have had previous higher education study, this will affect how much you are able to borrow).

*Correct as of July 2026

‍Check how much student finance you could get - GOV.UK

Who is Eligible

• Aged between 18 and 60 (over 60s can apply for help with living costs but not tuition fees)
• Wanting to study on an eligible higher education course.
• Your home is in England.
• You’ve been continuously living in the UK, Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for 3 years before the first day of the month your course starts.
• You have available balance in your LLE account.

Find out more about the full eligibility criteria here: Lifelong learning entitlement: what it is and how it will work - GOV.UK

What courses at SGS are eligible for the LLE

All of our Certificates in Higher Education, Foundation Degrees, Degrees and Higher Nationals (HNC/D).

Some Level 4 courses such as the UAL Professional Diploma in Production and Stage Management, UAL Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, AAT Diploma in Professional Accounting and the CPCAB Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling.

Eligible courses are clearly marked as available for the LLE on the course pages of our website.

How course fees are set under the LLE

Maximum tuition fees are set based on the number of credits allocated to the course. Credits are a measurement used to identify how much learning is in one period of study. One credit generally equals 10 hours of learning by the student.

In the LLE system, the government sets annual fee limits per credit. Providers can charge up to the maximum fee limit but not exceed it.

More information can be found here: Tuition fee limits in the Lifelong Learning Entitlement - GOV.UK

Students Returning to Higher Education

You may be eligible for some LLE funding even if you’ve studied before at the same or lower-level qualification.

Any government funding you’ve previously received to cover higher education course tuition fees will be deducted from your LLE balance. The deducted amount will include previous tuition fee loans which may take into account inflation.

If you did not have to pay tuition fees when you studied, the amount you would have paid will be deducted at today’s equivalent value.

If you’ve already used up the tuition loan fee amount of £39,160, you usually cannot apply for more student finance.

How you’ll repay

Any student loans you borrow will need to be paid back, but not until you’ve finished or left your course. You’ll start repaying when you earn over £25,000.

Your loans will be written off 40 years after the April you’re first due to repay.

Interest will be charged until your loans are repaid in full or written off.

Further information on interest rates can be found here: Student finance if your course starts on or after 1 January 2027: Overview - GOV.UK

If you’re not from England

There’ll be a different process if your home is not usually in England. You will need to apply for student finance through the relevant devolved country if you live in Wales, Scotland, Northen Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, or the Isle of Man. Click on the links to find out more information.

• Wales
• Scotland
• Northern Ireland
• Jersey
• Guernsey
• Isle of Man

What about the Advanced Learner Loan?

From January 1^st 2027, qualifications that used to be eligible for the Advanced Learner Loan at SGS will not be funded through this route. All applications for student finance for eligible courses will be made through the LLE.

Transferring into SGS from another Higher Education Provider

After the 1^st of January 2027 If you are transferring in part way through a qualification from another provider and you were funded under the old student finance system, you will need to apply for funding for your SGS course through the LLE. Any previous student finance loans you have taken out will be taken into account when calculating how much LLE funding you have left (this is called your residual entitlement).

Further Information and Support

• Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) | Skills for Careers
• Starting uni or college in 2026 or 2027 - Student Finance England
• Student finance: how to apply for courses starting in 2027: How to apply - GOV.UK

For any LLE queries, please contact the HE Admissions Team at SGS by emailing HEAdmissions@sgscol.ac.uk

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