Second Degree Loan Exceptions 2026/27

Quick answer

If you already hold a degree, Student Finance England (SFE) will usually only fund your first higher education qualification — even if you paid for that first course yourself. That is the equivalent or lower qualification (ELQ) rule (GOV.UK: student finance eligibility).

There are official exceptions. GOV.UK says full support can still be available if you already have a first degree and you are studying an Initial Teacher Training (ITT) course of no more than two years and you do not hold qualified teacher status, or a nursing, midwifery or Allied Health Professional course in England that started on or after 1 August 2017 (dental hygiene or dental therapy from 1 August 2018). Limited funding may also be available for certain part-time STEM degrees, and a Maintenance Loan may still be available on courses leading to qualification as a doctor, dentist, veterinary surgeon or architect. Always read this as Student Finance England, if eligible. Loans are repaid.

General information for UK home students living in England, based on GOV.UK and official NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) guidance checked on 10 November 2026 (Europe/London). These rules apply to undergraduate student finance for courses starting before 1 January 2027, unless the Lifelong Learning Entitlement section says otherwise. Rules and figures change. AF Education is not Student Finance England or the NHS. Your SFE assessment, and where relevant your NHS LSF or NHS Bursary award, decide what you receive. Nothing here promises eligibility, funding, a place, a job or a salary. Student finance loans are repaid.

This guide is for mature students who already hold a degree and want to know which subjects are excepted, and what Tuition Fee Loan, Maintenance Loan or NHS support may still be available. For the general previous-study and ELQ picture, start with Second Degree Student Finance 2026/27. For how many Tuition Fee Loan years you may have left if you did not finish a first degree, see how many years of student finance you can get.

The general ELQ rule

GOV.UK is plain: you will usually only get student finance if you are doing your first higher education qualification, even if the earlier course was self-funded (GOV.UK: eligibility).

The 2026 to 2027 assessment guide puts it the same way: Tuition Fee Loan support is not available if you hold an equivalent or higher-level qualification to the one you intend to study (GOV.UK: how you’re assessed and paid 2026 to 2027, section 4.6). A second bachelor’s degree in a subject that is not on the exception list is usually outside standard SFE tuition funding.

Two related points are easy to mix up:

• ELQ is about the qualification you already hold. A completed honours degree is typically an equivalent or higher qualification for another honours degree.
• Previous study is about time already spent in higher education, including unfinished years. That can reduce how many years of Tuition Fee Loan you have left, using the course length + 1 year − previous study formula.

Dependants’ Grants and Disabled Students’ Allowance are still available if you have studied in higher education before. They are not blocked by the usual ELQ rule.

You may also get limited funding if you are topping up an HNC, HND or foundation degree to an honours degree. That is a different situation from already holding an honours degree.

Nursing, midwifery and allied health: full SFE support plus the NHS Learning Support Fund

If you already have a first degree, GOV.UK says full support is available if you are studying:

• a nursing, midwifery or Allied Health Professional course (excluding dental hygiene and dental therapy) in England that started on or after 1 August 2017
• a dental hygiene or dental therapy course that started on or after 1 August 2018

“Full support” here means the usual undergraduate package can still be available — a Tuition Fee Loan and, if you qualify, a Maintenance Loan — even though you already hold a degree. The course must be a designated pre-registration course. Do not assume every health-related subject qualifies.

On top of SFE loans, eligible pre-registration students in England can apply for the NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF) from the NHS Business Services Authority. This is separate from SFE. The Training Grant is a non-means-tested grant of £5,000 per academic year (or a pro-rata amount if you study part time) and is not repaid (NHSBSA: NHS Learning Support Fund, GOV.UK: NHS financial support for health students, 10th edition).

Official LSF-eligible pre-registration courses include nursing (adult, child, mental health, learning disability, joint nursing and social work, or joint nursing and paramedicine), midwifery, dietetics, occupational therapy, operating department practice, orthoptics, orthotics and prosthetics, paramedicine (not DipHE or foundation degree courses), physiotherapy, podiatry or chiropody, radiography (diagnostic and therapeutic), speech and language therapy, and dental therapy or dental hygiene at levels 5 and 6. Foundation years are not eligible for NHS LSF.

On top of the Training Grant, a Specialist Subject Payment of an extra £1,000 a year may be available for mental health nursing, learning disability nursing, radiography, prosthetics and orthotics, orthoptics and podiatry. Parental Support of £2,000 a year may be available if you have a child. Travel and Dual Accommodation Expenses are based on placement costs. An Exceptional Support Fund of up to £3,000 a year may be available in unforeseen hardship.

NHSBSA says you must usually be eligible for tuition fee and maintenance loans, be actively studying, and must not already be professionally registered in the profession you are training for. Second-degree paramedicine, and some pharmacy or healthcare science routes, may be assessed case by case, and some of those students can only access travel expenses. Confirm on the NHSBSA pages for your exact course. More detail on applying for both packages is in our guide to funded nursing degrees and the NHS Learning Support Fund.

Teacher training (ITT)

GOV.UK says full support is available if you already have a first degree and you are studying an Initial Teacher Training (ITT) course that does not exceed two years, and you do not already hold qualified teacher status (GOV.UK: how you’re assessed and paid 2026 to 2027).

That can include a one-year postgraduate ITT course such as a PGCE. The assessment guide also notes that postgraduate ITT is one of the postgraduate courses that can still qualify for undergraduate student finance, and that a one-year PGCE is not treated as a “final year” for Maintenance Loan rates.

If you already have QTS, or the course is longer than two years, do not assume this exception applies. Check with SFE and the provider.

Medicine and dentistry: Maintenance Loan, then the NHS Bursary in later years

This is not the same as the nursing “full support” exception. The 2026 to 2027 assessment guide says a Maintenance Loan is available if you do not have an equivalent or higher qualification, or if you are on a course leading to a professional qualification such as a medical doctor, dentist, veterinary surgeon or architect.

That is a living-costs exception. It does not, on its own, say that a Tuition Fee Loan is automatically available for every year of a second medical or dental degree. Confirm the tuition position with SFE for your course.

In the later years, funding often moves to the NHS Bursary, administered by NHSBSA, if you normally live in England and the course is in the official medical and dental intake. NHSBSA says you may still be eligible if you are studying medicine or dentistry as a second degree (NHSBSA: NHS Bursary).

For 2026/27, NHSBSA sets the tuition fee contribution at up to £9,790 for an undergraduate course lasting five or six years, and up to £3,930 for a graduate-entry course lasting three or four years, paid to the university. A non-means-tested bursary of £1,081 is listed, plus a means-tested bursary of up to £3,447 (London, not living in the parental home), £2,855 (outside London, not in the parental home) or £2,384 (living in the parental home).

• Undergraduate courses of five or more years: you can usually apply for the NHS Bursary from year 5 (and year 6 if the course lasts that long). NHSBSA says a foundation year can be included if it was an integral part of the course.
• Graduate-entry courses of three or four years: you can usually apply from year 2 onwards. Earlier years are normally funded through Student Finance England. If the university fee is higher than the NHS contribution, NHSBSA says you may be able to apply to SFE for a Tuition Fee Loan towards the difference.

If you are eligible to apply for an income-assessed NHS bursary, and you meet SFE’s usual eligibility requirements, GOV.UK says you can apply for a reduced-rate Maintenance Loan that does not depend on household income. If you are eligible for a non-income-assessed NHS bursary, you cannot apply for student finance from SFE.

These are the official outlines. Graduate-entry and second-degree medicine or dentistry cases are assessed on the facts of the course and your previous study. Get the position confirmed by SFE and NHSBSA before you accept a place.

Part-time options, including STEM

GOV.UK says you may get limited funding if you hold an honours degree (or a higher qualification) and start a part-time honours degree, a joint honours degree or an integrated master’s in one of the following (or two of them, if it is joint honours):

• agriculture and related subjects
• architecture (if it is a MArch RIBA Part 2 course)
• biological sciences
• computer science
• mathematical sciences
• medicine and allied subjects
• physical sciences
• technologies
• courses leading to qualification as a veterinary surgeon

Do not assume every STEM or “science-related” course is on that list. The course must also meet the usual part-time rules: a course intensity of 25% or more, and no more than 16 years of part-time funding in total. The part-time Tuition Fee Loan for 2026/27 is up to £7,335 (GOV.UK: part-time students). Whether you also get a Maintenance Loan depends on SFE’s assessment of the course and your circumstances — check rather than assume.

What changes from 1 January 2027 (Lifelong Learning Entitlement)

For most courses starting on or after 1 January 2027, you apply through Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) funding. GOV.UK says you may be eligible even if you have studied before, including for a second undergraduate degree at the same or a lower level (GOV.UK: student finance on or after 1 January 2027 — eligibility).

Previous government tuition funding is usually deducted from the usual Tuition Fee Loan total of £39,160, so a typical three-year graduate may have a smaller remaining balance. If that balance is used up, you may still get priority additional entitlement for a full course in medicine, dentistry, nursing, midwifery, certain allied health professions (for example physiotherapy, radiography or speech and language therapy), initial teacher training or social work (GOV.UK: getting an extra Tuition Fee Loan).

GOV.UK also states that students who choose medicine or dentistry as a second degree under the LLE will be able to access full tuition fee and standard maintenance support for those years not covered by the NHS Bursary (GOV.UK: LLE overview). That is a change from the current system, so check the rules that match your start date. The wider picture is in What Is the Lifelong Learning Entitlement?.

Frequently asked questions

Free help from AF Education

AF Education gives free UK support with Student Finance England applications for mature and foundation-year Home students. WhatsApp: +44 7448 501646 · afeducation.co.uk.

Student Finance England, if eligible. Loans are repaid. Eligibility rules apply. Figures from GOV.UK and NHSBSA. Only SFE, and where relevant NHSBSA, can confirm what you will receive.

Sources

• Student finance for undergraduates: eligibility (GOV.UK)
• Student finance: how you’re assessed and paid 2026 to 2027 (GOV.UK, updated 23 March 2026)
• Student finance for undergraduates: part-time students (GOV.UK)
• NHS Learning Support Fund (NHSBSA)
• NHS financial support for health students (10th edition): NHS Learning Support Fund (GOV.UK)
• NHS Bursary (NHSBSA)
• Student finance on or after 1 January 2027: eligibility (GOV.UK)
• Getting an extra Tuition Fee Loan (GOV.UK)
• Lifelong learning entitlement overview (GOV.UK)