Northern Ireland: funding by circumstance
Use this page if Northern Ireland is your home nation. nidirect publishes the 2026-27 loan rates below for Student Finance NI. The income-assessment page is a general guide and says it does not cover every case. Your local Student Finance NI office assesses the application.
Last checked 6 November 2026. Figures can change. Tell us if a figure is wrong.
Where you live and study
For 2026 to 2027, a Tuition Fee Loan is up to £4,985 for study in Northern Ireland and up to £9,790 for study in the rest of the UK. It is paid to the university. At a private institution you may not receive a loan that covers the full fee. The page does not state the private-institution shortfall as a single number.
The maximum 2026-27 Maintenance Loan is £6,471 if you live at home with parents and attend college in Northern Ireland, £8,352 if you live elsewhere, £11,699 if the course is in London, and £9,956 if you are overseas. You must be under 60 when you start the course.
nidirect says you can take out around 75 per cent of the maximum Maintenance Loan regardless of household income. It does not print that portion as a pound amount, so we have not multiplied it out. The rest depends on household income.
A separate table of final-year maintenance amounts is not stated on official pages we checked. The Student Loans page says the amount depends on whether you are in the final year, and then publishes the maximums above without a second final-year column.
Sources, last checked 6 November 2026: nidirect: Student Loans (2026-2027 rates); nidirect: income assessment for full-time students.
Dependent students
nidirect says you are generally classed as dependent if you are under 25 on the first day of the academic year and financially dependent on one or both parents, even if you do not live with them. The office then counts parental income, or one parent and that parent’s partner if your parents are divorced or separated, on top of your own income. Your own income includes unearned income such as interest, and not casual earnings during the course.
The page does not publish a different maximum for dependent students. The 2026-27 maximums remain £6,471 at home in Northern Ireland, £8,352 elsewhere, and £11,699 for a course in London. The income table in the next sections shows lower loans where a Maintenance Grant is paid.
Sources, last checked 6 November 2026: nidirect: income assessment for full-time students; nidirect: Student Loans.
Independent students
nidirect says the list is not exhaustive. You will usually be classed as independent if, on the first day of the first academic year, you have care of a child or young person under 18, you are 25 or over, or you have no living parents. You will generally also be classed as independent if, before that day, you are or have been married or in a civil partnership, or you have supported yourself for at least three years. Only your income and your partner’s income are counted. Partner includes a spouse or civil partner.
There is no separate independent-student maximum on the pages we checked. At a household income of £41,540 the income-assessment table shows a Maintenance Grant of £0 and Maintenance Loans of £6,471 at your parents’ home, £8,352 away from home outside London, and £11,699 in London. Those match the maximum loans on the Student Loans page.
Sources, last checked 6 November 2026: nidirect: income assessment for full-time students; nidirect: Student Loans.
Household income, grant and loan
The income-assessment page says the table below is for full-time undergraduates in academic year 2026-27. The same page still has an earlier sentence that mentions 2025-2026. We have used the table it then labels as 2026-27. The loan amounts on the £41,540 row match the 2026-27 maximums on the Student Loans page.
Where a Maintenance Grant is paid, the Maintenance Loan on this table is lower than the maximum. At a household income of £19,203 the grant is £3,569. The page prints that income threshold with a space in the number. Receiving a Maintenance Grant can reduce the Maintenance Loan. The Special Support Grant is excluded from that reduction, on the Student Loans page. We have not invented a further formula beyond the rows below.
If household income details are not provided, you may not receive all the help you could get. The Tuition Fee Loan is still available. The income page describes 75 per cent of the tuition fee loan as not income-assessed. It does not print that share in pounds.
| Household income | Maintenance Grant | Loan, away from home, outside London | Loan, away from home, in London | Loan, living at parents’ home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £19,203 | £3,569 | £6,451 | £9,798 | £4,570 |
| £25,000 | £2,621 | £6,773 | £10,120 | £4,892 |
| £30,000 | £1,248 | £7,104 | £10,451 | £5,223 |
| £35,000 | £708 | £7,644 | £10,991 | £5,763 |
| £41,540 | £0 | £8,352 | £11,699 | £6,471 |
Sources, last checked 6 November 2026: nidirect: income assessment for full-time students; nidirect: Student Loans.
Postgraduate study
For academic year 2026-27, nidirect says the maximum Postgraduate Tuition Fee Loan is £10,000, or the actual tuition fee if that is less. The same maximum applies to eligible study in the UK and in the Republic of Ireland.
A postgraduate maintenance loan in pounds, separate from that tuition fee loan, is not stated on official pages we checked. The Student Loans page states undergraduate maintenance rates and this postgraduate tuition fee loan, and it does not add a postgraduate living-cost table.
Sources, last checked 6 November 2026: nidirect: Student Loans.
Corrections and what this is not
This is general information from the official pages linked in each section. It is not a personal entitlement and not personal financial advice. The funding body assesses your application. If a figure here is wrong, tell us.
Sources
Every figure above is tied to one of these. Accessed 6 November 2026.