Paying via SAAS or SFNI loan funding

This guide is for online degree students at the University of Aberdeen.

This information is for online degree students who have a tuition fee loan from the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) or Student Finance Northern Ireland (SFNI).

These funding providers pay tuition fees directly to us on your behalf.

This guide explains more about how we’ll check and process your loan details.

For information on eligibility and applying for loans, see:

• the SAAS website, or
• the SFNI website.

Funded by SFE or SFW?

Student Finance England (SFE) and Student Finance Wales (SFW) make loan funding payments directly to students, not to the University of Aberdeen.

If you are funded by SFE or SFW, choose an alternative funding option to pay your fees to us and register for your courses.

How to pay for your online learning with SAAS or SFNI funding

In the ‘Pay for your learning’ section, select the funding body that provides your loan.

We can only accept loan funding from the providers listed. If your provider is not listed, you need to select a different way to pay.

Request to pay via loan funding

If you are being funded by SAAS or SFNI, you need to request to pay via loan funding by submitting our loan details form.

Your loan details form

Courses you have chosen that start in the next 12 months will appear on your loan details form automatically, and cannot be deselected.

Why 12 months?

SAAS and SFNI award tuition fee loans across 12-month periods. We will allocate this funding over the courses that begin in the same time period.

Verifying your funding

We ask you to upload proof of your tuition fee loan award so that we can be sure that your funding is confirmed before you are registered on courses.

We’ll review and verify your request to pay by loan funding and let you know the outcome via email.

If we need more information from you, we contact you via email.

Allocating your loan funding

Once your funding has been verified, we’ll allocate your funding to the courses you have chosen that start in the next 12 months.

If your funding does not cover the cost of all the courses on your request form, we will allocate your funding to courses in the earliest terms where possible. You will then be able to see what additional payments you need to make and when.

You’ll need to pay the balance for any part-funded courses to complete your registration, and you’ll then need to pay for any unfunded courses before their start date.