Undergraduate full-time
As a full-time home undergraduate student, you may be eligible to receive a range of loans, grants and scholarships for your studies here at NTU, if you meet certain criteria. The following step by step guide tells you how to apply for funding and what steps you need to take now to help ensure that your funding is there when you need it at the start of term.
Step one - Apply for your funding
If you haven't applied for your funding yet, you should do so straight away. Further details are available by downloading our step-by-step guide to applying for funding. 
You can also download a copy of our Money Matters Guide which sets out the fees and funding package for NTU students.
If you applied to the University through Clearing, you can visit our fees and funding pages for Clearing students.
When you apply, you will be given a customer reference number, password and secret answer. Keep these somewhere safe as you will be asked for these if you need to ring to enquire about your funding and / or access the range of online services. Visit the Directgov website for more information about managing your student finance account, including:
- how to change or retrieve your password or secret answer
- what to do if you get locked out of your account.
There are deadlines you need to meet to guarantee that your funding is in place at the start of the academic year (31 May for those applying to Student Finance England). If you missed this deadline, you can still apply but you may start the term without funding. You are advised to bring enough money with you to cover your needs until your loan and grant arrives. Please bear in mind that, depending on when you applied, you could face several weeks without funding. Advice and support is available from Student Support Services to those who are facing financial hardship as a result of funding delays. You can also refer to our frequently asked questions.
Step two - Find out what you're entitled to
Student Finance Entitlement Letter
Within six to eight weeks of submitting your application, you should receive a Student Finance Entitlement letter, outlining what grant and / or loan you are entitled to, and the dates your payments will be made.
The letter is colour coded to show you which money is being paid directly to you and which money is being paid directly to the university.
The letter is split into five sections as follows:
- a covering letter explaining any steps you may need to take to get your payments
- student finance - a breakdown of how your finance is worked out
- a payment timetable advising when to expect your payments
- frequently asked questions answering any outstanding queries you may have
- university or college payment advice which shows what money is being paid to the university towards fees.
Student Finance Declaration Form
If you applied online, you will also receive a Student Finance Declaration Form attached to the letter which needs returning immediately to the Student Loans Company or your loan / grant cannot be paid to you. In addition, if you fail to return this form, the University will not be notified of any tuition fee loan and this will prevent you becoming fully enrolled.
If you have received your Student Finance Entitlement Letter and your application has been income assessed, your eligibility for an NTU Scholarship should automatically be checked. Once your eligibility for the maintenance grant has been established, NTU should automatically receive confirmation of this if you have advised your student finance service that you will be studying at Nottingham Trent University and provided you (and your sponsors if applicable) have not actively withdrawn consent to share financial information with the University for the purposes of assessing scholarship entitlement. If you are awarded a Scholarship, you will receive written confirmation from the University.
If you are eligible, you should receive written confirmation within four weeks of you receiving your Student Finance Entitlement Letter.
Step three - Tuition Fee Loan Confirmed to University
When you have returned your Student Finance Declaration Form (online applicants only) the University will receive confirmation from the Student Loans Company of any tuition fee loan you are eligible to receive and have applied for.
You do not need to present the University or College Payment Advice section of your Student Finance Entitlement letter to the University to release your grant / loan funding, unless specifically requested to do so by a member of University staff. This is because a separate notification will be sent direct to the university once your Student Finance Declaration Form (above) has been returned. However, you should keep it safe in case of problems.
If you have received a letter from the University, confirming that you are eligible for either the NTU or National Scholarship and that your fees will be reduced, please note that the University will contact your Student Finance Service directly to advise them of your tuition fee and this will automatically have the effect of reducing your fee loan (if you have applied for a higher amount). However, the letter contains information about how to adjust your tuition fee loan if you wish to arrange this directly. We advise that you bring your scholarship letter with you, along with your other student finance paperwork in case you have problems. If you have not yet received a letter offering you a scholarship, please be aware that scholarship letters will generally be sent around four weeks after you receive your Student Finance Entitlement Letter.
Step four - Enrol Online
For your loans and grants to be paid to you, you need to be either fully enrolled (FE) or Conditionally enrolled (CE). You will only have an enrolment status of FE or CE if the University has confirmation of how you are paying your fees. If you are paying your fees by a tuition fee loan, the University must have received confirmation of your tuition fee loan from the Student Loans Company before you can become FE or CE. Alternatively, if you are paying your own fees directly to the University, you will need to have arrangements in place for this before you can become FE. See NTU's fee payment details. Without this confirmation of how your fees are being paid, your enrolment status will remain at Temporarily enrolled (TE) and your grant / loan cannot be released. Once you have completed your online enrolment, you will be told if you are FE, CE or TE.
Step five - Collect your student card
Step six - University confirms your attendance
Once you are fully enrolled (FE) or conditionally enrolled (CE), and have collected your student card the University will send confirmation of your attendance to the Student Loans Company to trigger the release of your funding.
Step seven - Your Loan / Grant is paid
Your first grant / loan instalment should be released three to five working days after the University has confirmed your attendance.
Not received your money?
If you have followed all the above steps but still have not received your money (or if you are late applying and anticipate that your grant / loan will be late arriving) advice is available. You can refer to our frequently asked questions and help is available from our Student Services team at every stage of the above process.
If you want a University adviser to speak to the Student Loans Company on your behalf, you will need to have given consent to the SLC to share information with the University. You can do this by ringing 0845 300 5090. You will prompted to create a password that you can then give to an adviser to use during any necessary telephone conversations. Go to the Directgov website and scroll down to the section called 'Giving other people access to your student finance account' for more information.
Student Finance England Twitter Feed
- You don't need to know your term time address to make an application! More info on our FAQ page: http://bit.ly/wvEXj4
