Basically, student finance is a government-financed loan that covers university students' tuition fees and living costs for the duration of their study. There are two main types of loan, tuition and maintenance - we'll take each in turn. Tuition fees Undergraduate courses in England generally cost students about £9,250 a year. That's a lot for a young person to cover, so the government offers to pay that outright, direct to the university, on their behalf.
With those thresholds in mind, you'll repay either: 9% of your income over the threshold if you're on Plan 1, 2, 4 or 56% of your income over the threshold if you're on a postgraduate loan If you're on multiple plans, the rules are slightly different. If you don't have a postgraduate loan, you'll repay 9% of your income over the lowest threshold out of the plan types you have.