US loan FAQs

To be eligible for Federal Direct Loans your course cannot include online teaching.

All courses are now in person and are not fully online, however eligibility requirements require that there is no online teaching at all.

This only applies to Federal financial aid. If you are borrowing a private student loan e.g. Sallie Mae or Earnest, there are no restrictions.

The £5,500 International Deposit is part of your tuition fee and is not an additional payment. 

Students in receipt of US Loans approved by the University of Westminster can defer payment of the International Deposit. To do this, your loan must be approved. We then notify the Visa Compliance team, who will contact you regarding your CAS number and visa information.

If you prefer to pay the international deposit yourself before your loan has been originated so that you may obtain your CAS quicker you can do so by going to Paying your Fees.

For more information about your CAS please see Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS).

International students have to pay a deposit before they are issued with their CAS number, however, US students in receipt of Federal or private student loans can defer payment of the international deposit. After the Visa Compliance team are notified of your loan approval they will contact you regarding your CAS number. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to do this.

Please email [email protected] if you have any queries relating to your CAS.

Federal Direct Loans

Once your loans have been approved we will send you a Notification of Student Loan Letter.

This letter is confirmation of your Federal Direct Loans and includes the loan period, the loan type, the amount you are borrowing and the disbursement dates for the academic year. This letter can be used as official confirmation of your loan to support your visa application when it is signed and stamped by the Student Funding staff. 

Private Student Loans

After your loan has been certified Sallie Mae or Earnest will send you confirmation, which can be used to support your visa application.

You can contact our Student Advice Team but you may find the answers to your questions on our Student visa webpages. You can also email [email protected] with your questions.

Step 1 – FAFSA

• You must complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
• Include the University of Westminster as one of your school options
• The University of Westminster's school code is G21951.

The following steps must be completed via the Student Loans website.

Step 2 – Subsidised/Unsubsidised Master Promissory Note (MPN)

Step 3 – PLUS Master Promissory Note (MPN) and Loan Application

If you or your parent is borrowing a Direct PLUS Loan (if not, go to step 4)

Step 4 – Entrance Counselling

Step 5 – Return your completed and signed Loan Acceptance Document (LAD). Your LAD is included in your Financial Aid Package that we emailed to you along with your CoA and Guide to the Loan Process.

You do not need to send us documentation to show that you have completed steps 1 to 4 as we can access them ourselves.

Your loans will be approved once you have accepted the course offer to study at the University of Westminster and completed the steps above. If you have a conditional offer, your loans will be originated after you have met the conditions of your offer.

Yes, Exit Counselling is a requirement for all students who borrow Federal Direct Loans (Subsidised, Unsubsidised and PLUS). Before you graduate, drop below half-time attendance, or withdraw, US regulations require you to complete an Exit Counselling session, regardless of whether you plan to transfer to another school or re-enrol later.

Find out more and complete the session by going to Exit Counseling.

• You can apply for Sallie Mae loans via Salliemae.com
• You can apply for an Earnest loan via Earnest.com

Before we can certify a private student loan you should consider both Federal and private student loans. We advise that you take some time to compare interest rates and repayment terms to decide which is best for you. Please see How do I repay my loans? for information on repayment plans.

Your Federal Direct Loans, Sallie Mae and Earnest private student loans will be disbursed to you in GBP (sterling) into a UK bank account.

As we cannot disburse loans until you are fully enrolled and have a UK bank account, we strongly advise you to have available cash with you when you arrive in London. The Admissions Office will send you an email informing you of your enrolment date.

Federal Direct Loans

The University uses Convera to process Federal Direct Loan disbursements and you will receive an email via Convera to logon to their secure portal to submit your UK bank details.

Before your disbursement, you will receive a Pre-disbursement email outlining the information of your loan instalment and when it is likely to go through. Once the transaction has been made, you will receive another email with the details of your disbursement, showing the GBP amount allocated to your tuition fees and the amount paid to you for your living expenses. Your tuition fee payments will not show on your student record immediately as they take longer to process.

Undergraduate students

• Disbursed in two instalments
• From each disbursement we will immediately pay up to 50% of tuition fees
• The remaining balance on each disbursement, if any, will be directly deposited into your UK bank account to use for your living expenses.

Graduate/Professional students

• Disbursed in three instalments.
• From each disbursement we will immediately pay up to a third of tuition fees.
• The remaining balance on each disbursement, if any, will be directly deposited into your UK bank account to use for your living expenses.

Sallie Mae Loans

We use Corpay to process your private student loan disbursements. You will receive an email to request your bank details before the first disbursement. Once the transaction has been made, you will receive an email with the details of your disbursement, showing the GBP amount allocated to your tuition fees and the amount paid to you for your living expenses. Your tuition fee payments will not show on your student record immediately as they take longer to process.

• Disbursed in two instalments
• From each disbursement we will immediately pay 50% of tuition fees
• The remaining balance on each disbursement, if any, will be directly deposited into your UK bank account to use for your living expenses

Earnest Loans

The University uses Convera to process Earnest student loan disbursements and you will receive an email via Convera to logon to their secure portal to submit your UK bank details. Once the transaction has been made, you will receive an email with the details of your disbursement, showing the GBP amount allocated to your tuition fees and the amount paid to you for your living expenses. Your tuition fee payments will not show on your student record immediately as they take longer to process.

• Disbursed in two instalments.
• From each disbursement we will immediately pay up to 50% of tuition fees
• The remaining balance on each disbursement, if any, will be directly deposited into your UK bank account to use for your living expenses.

Your loan(s) will be paid to you in GBP (sterling). We use Convera to process our Federal Direct Loan and Earnest Loan disbursements and we use Corpay to process our Sallie Mae disbursements. 

Convera and Corpay provide us with the exchange rate on the day of the disbursement and therefore we cannot tell you what exchange rate will be applied to your loan instalment in advance.

On each disbursement the exchange rate will vary and cannot be changed. Currency fluctuations should be expected when studying at an overseas institution where funds need to be converted.

The expected disbursement dates for the 2026/27 academic year are outlined below. Please be aware that the date of the first disbursement is dependent on you completing enrolment and providing us with your UK bank details. For information on banking in the UK visit our Banking page.

Disbursement dates for the 2026/27 academic year are below. Please note that all dates are week commencing (w/c).

*(w/c) is week commencing of the dates mentioned.

Please follow the links below to see the relevant repayment information and plans available.

• Repayment plans - Federal Student Aid
• Choose a type of interest rate and repayment option - Sallie Mae
• Repayment options for private student loans - Earnest

The University of Westminster does not currently complete 1098-T tax forms for its US students. For your tax forms, we have provided our school code and EIN below. To see your tuition fee payments please click on Fees and Payments in your SRS Web account.

• University school code: G21951
• Employer Identification Number (EIN): 98-1157292.

Students can apply for scholarships to help fund their studies at the University of Westminster. 

The University has its own internal scholarships programme with the majority of scholarships offering a tuition fee award.  Students can also apply for external scholarships to support their tuition fees and/or living expenses.

If you receive an external scholarship and your award letter does not state whether the funds are for tuition fees or living expenses, it will be paid into your tuition fee account. If you would like to use the funds for your living expenses instead and your tuition fees are fully paid or will be fully paid with your student loan you can request a refund. To process the refund your scholarship provider must confirm in writing that the funds can be used in this way.

If your internal or external scholarship application is successful, please let us know by contacting [email protected].

It may be possible, please see our Transferring your Course webpage for the things to consider before transferring and information on who to contact. However, please be aware that you will lose your Federal Direct Loan eligibility if you transfer to an ineligible course. Additionally, for students who began before 1st July 2026 with prior loan borrowing, the new loan regulations will apply. This means that your loan(s) will be governed fully by the post 2026 loan limits and aggregate caps. For more information, please see our Transitional and “Grandfathering” (Legacy) Provisions – Federal Student Aid (FSA) and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Updates.