Local Authorities only have to fund students to do certain types of course. That includes all first degrees and quite a lot else, but certain art, drama and dance students ought to read the small print in particular and, again, if in doubt, give the LEA (or SLC) or the college running the course a call.

Anyway, the courses the LEA will fork out for are:

• Full-time first degrees (eg. BA, BSc or BEd), including sandwich courses
• In particular cases, part-time courses of initial teacher training
• A Foundation Degree
• A Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE)
• A Higher National Diploma (HND)
• A Higher National Certificate (HNC)
• Part-time courses (except the Open University PGCE) which are at least one year (and don’t take more than twice as long as doing the course full-time) are eligible for a fee grant of up to £1,150 (for a student studying the equivalent of 75% or more of a full-time course) and a course grant of up to £250
• A Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) or other postgrad initial teacher training course which qualifies you as a teacher. Also, various other qualifications that qualify you as a teacher such as a level 4 NVQ if you take it at the same time as a first degree, a DipHE or an HND. Some teacher training courses also get extra money, not necessarily from the LEA – but more about that later
• A course which prepares for a professional examination higher than A level, Scottish Higher, National Certificate or National Diploma
• A foundation year which forms part of one of the courses listed above.

Also in this section:

• A quick guide to student funding
• Will I get anything?

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