Fees and finance

Home students can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan and Maintenance Loan.  Please see Student Finance England for more information about Student Finance for Teacher Training Courses.

EU students please visit the Government website for information on eligibility if you're commencing your studies from August 2021.

If you have any questions on the maintenance loan/tuition fee loan application process please contact Student Finance England.

A resource you might find useful when considering the tuition fee system is Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert website (this site is independent of the University of Exeter).

IMPORTANT - When applying through the Student Finance England Application Portal you will be asked to enter details about the course you are applying for.  Please make sure you start this search with ‘Primary’, ‘Secondary’ or ‘School Direct’ depending on your programme and then your pathway/subject to ensure you select a PGCE course rather than an undergraduate one in error.

In addition to the tuition support and student loans, the DfE offers further financial incentives and support to offset the costs of PGCE training for some subjects. Teaching is a prime career choice for high-quality graduates. To encourage the best people to enter the profession,  you will need at least a 2:2 to be eligible for a training bursary.

Bursaries are available for Home trainees on eligible postgraduate courses in England (note: for 2023/24, international trainees are also eligible for a bursary if they are training to teach Secondary Physics or Secondary Modern Foreign Languages and may also be eligible for a £10,000 international relocation payment).

Bursary amounts will vary depending on teaching subject and degree class. They are paid in 10 monthly payments directly into your bank account by the University from funds provided by the DfE, as long as you have provided your bank account details and have registered.  Payments are usually made on the first friday of each month, with the first payment date being the first friday in October.

Further information about teacher training bursaries can be found in section 10 of the University's Finance regulations. 

DfE financial support

For full details on options please visit the DfE Get into Teaching website.

Chemistry, Computing, Maths, Modern Languages and Physics

For details on the scholarships available for these secondary subjects, please see the relevant websites below:

• The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) scholarships
• BCS, The Chartered Institute of IT
• Mathematics Teacher Training Scholarships
• British Council (for languages scholarships)
• The Institute of Physics (IoP) scholarships

The University of Exeter is offering a £550 bursary to all UK students studying for a PGCE with us in 2023/24, whose household income is £25,000 or less. This is to help support those on low incomes with costs associated with their PGCE training year, including travel to placements. There is no separate application procedure for this bursary. Instead, the University of Exeter makes an assessment using the household income information provided by the student's funding body (e.g. Student Finance England). Students must make sure that they and their sponsor(s) have given consent for details of their application to be shared with the University of Exeter. This consent to share is requested during the application for financial support, but can be given at any time throughout the year by contacting their student funding body. 

Students who have not applied for financial support, or who have applied but chosen not to be means tested, are unable to be considered for this bursary until they do.

The University of Exeter is committed to supporting care leavers to realise their full potential through higher education study. As part of our commitments we will provide financial support for care leavers who are under the age of 25 when they begin studying with us, and who were in local authority care in the UK for a minimum period of three months spanning their 16th birthday (as per the Care Leavers' Act). This support includes a full fee waiver and financial support for accommodation outside university term dates.

If you meet the criteria for extra support as outlined above and would like further information about how to access the fee waiver and additional support please do not hesitate to contact us.

The University, in partnership with its alumni community, has created the Success for All Fund to help you if you are experiencing unexpected financial challenges affecting your ability to study.

You may be facing financial hardship; be struggling to pay for IT or a learning disability assessment; or have bills to pay while waiting for your first grant payment to arrive.

All registered undergraduate and postgraduate University of Exeter students are eligible to apply, irrespective of fee-status. Priority will be given to students undertaking their first degree who are from low income households or without family support. The majority of funds are means-tested and you will be asked to provide evidence in support of your application. Please note, funding will not be given to pay your tuition fees.

Further information on the Success for All Fund and other Student Funding Schemes is available on the Student Finance webpages.

We offer a contribution to some of the travel and accommodation costs that PGCE trainees may incur as a result of the structure of the training year.  Please see our PGCE Secondary Travel Policy and PGCE Primary Travel Policy for further details.   Please read these policies carefully to see what they do and don’t cover.  If you have any questions about these policies in advance of starting the programme, please contact Info at St Luke's on info.stlukes@exeter.ac.uk.