Your nationality and the country where you normally live determines your fee status and the cost of your tuition fees. 

If you are unsure of your fee status category, complete the Residential Eligibility Form and forward to finance@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk so we can clarify this for you.

If you’re a Scottish student, you are entitled to free tuition. The Scottish Funding Council will pay your fees directly to the College. This is called a fee waiver.

You’re considered a Scottish student if you meet the general residence conditions or are an exception to the general residence conditions such as a refugee, stateless person or under humanitarian protection.

The tuition fee for a full-time further education course is not subject to means-testing and entitlement is not affected by previous study.

If you normally live elsewhere and you’ve returned to Scotland to study, you may not be eligible for a fee waiver. Contact our Finance Team on 0141 630 5022 for further advice.

If you’re a student from England, Northern Ireland or Wales (RUK), you should apply to your own Local Education Authority for tuition fee and living cost support.

Following the results of the referendum in which the UK voted to leave the EU, the Scottish Government has announced that eligible EU students who start their course of education in academic year 2020/2021 will continue to be eligible for a fee waiver (and bursary where appropriate) for the duration of their course.

If you’re an EU student and have not been ordinarily resident in the UK, EEA/Switzerland or the EU overseas territories for the three years prior to the start date of your course, you may be liable for an international fee of £4,800

If you haven’t lived in the UK or Europe for the last three years and don’t identify with any of the exceptions to the general residence conditions, you’ll be considered an international student and will have to finance your own study.

The international fee is £4,800.

In order to qualify for a fee-waiver you must be studying a full time ESOL course.

If the Home Office have rejected your asylum application, or you are studying a full-time course other than ESOL, you’ll be charged an international fee of £4,800.

If you are not eligible for student funding, you may be liable to pay a tuition fee. The tuition fee you pay will vary depending on your fee status and your course of study and is payable on enrolment.  It is expected that students pay the full fee for any programme of study prior to the commencement of the programme.

Self-financing home rate student fee - £1,008

Self-financing international rate student fee - £4,800

If your sponsor/employer is paying your fees, please submit a letter from your organisation on company headed paper.

The letter must state your name, course details and be signed by an appropriate authorised member of staff.   A Purchase Order Number should also be quoted if this is the process your organisation operates.  Alternatively, you can download an Employer Declaration Form.

An invoice will then be sent direct to your sponsor/employer.

Please be aware that you will be invoiced directly for your course fee if confirmation of sponsorship is not received within 30 days of the start date of your course.

Fees should be paid in full at enrolment.  You can pay by bacs transfer using the details below or credit/debit card by calling us on 0141 630 5022.

If you are paying by bacs transfer please also make sure to include your student reference number as the payment reference

Sort Code:                  83-07-06

Account Number:      19615424

BIC:                           RBOSGB2L

IBAN:                        GB49RBOS83070619615424

If you are not able to make full payment at the time of your enrolment, please contact our Finance staff to discuss alternative payment methods.  It is expected that payment should be received in full prior to the end date of the course.

If you withdraw within three weeks of the start date of your course, you will be given a full refund minus a £40 administration fee.

Should you withdraw after three weeks of the start of any block, the full fees for the block will be charged.

It is important that you contact the college as soon as possible if you are having trouble in paying your fee, as sanctions for non-payment of fees can include:

• Certification may be withheld
• Withdrawal of ICT facilities
• Referral to College’s Debt Collection Agency
• Potential removal from course of study

If you are studying a further education course, you need to apply to Glasgow Kelvin College for funding.  You don’t have to pay this funding back.

The Student Funding Office will use the information you provide in your funding application to work out how much you’ll get.  You could receive one or more of the following allowances depending on your age, where you live, your household income and your personal circumstances.

Students who have reached school leaving age and are under 18 on the course start date will be assessed for EMA. You could get £30 per week depending on your household income.

Your household income must be below a certain level for you to qualify for EMA. There are two different levels, depending on your family circumstances:

• Household income must be £24,421 or less if you are the only child in the household.
• Household income must be £26,884 or less if there is more than one dependent child in the household.

Dependent children are those up to the age of 16 and those between the age of 16 and 25 in full-time further or higher education

If your household income is too high to receive EMA, you may still be eligible for bursary travel and study expense allowances, which are not income assessed for students under 18. You must still complete a funding application but will not have to submit evidence of household income.

If you have no parental support or are a lone parent and receive benefits such as Income Support or Universal Credit, you may qualify for EMA to be paid in addition to your benefits. If this applies to you, payment of EMA will be made beyond the age of 18 up until your 20th birthday.

There are different levels of bursary maintenance allowance, which are paid according to the age and personal circumstances of the student.

The allowance is only allocated following assessments of the household income.  This process is called income assessment (or means-testing).  Your award will be reduced by the amount that the government considers you and your parent(s)/partner can afford to provide toward supporting you as a student.  This is called a contribution.

Students living with parents

If you live with your parent(s), you could get:

• Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), if you're under 18
• up to £89.42 a week, if you're between 18-24 and supported by your parents
• up to £113 a week, if you're aged 25 or over, or certain self-supporting students.

Students living in their own home or at a term-time address

If you have an established, permanent home of your own, or you're living at a term-time address because your parental home is not within reasonable travelling distance from the college, you could get:

• up to £44.92 a week on top of Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), if you're under 18
• up to £113 a week, if you're between 18-24 and supported by parents
• up to £113 a week, if you're a self-supporting student.

If you are eligible to receive Universal Credit (UC) while studying, or will have a change of circumstances prior to the start date of your course (such as giving up work) and will need to make a claim for UC, you will be assessed for a maximum bursary maintenance allowance of £28.00 a week.  If you receive this allowance, there will be no work-related requirements for UC.

You may also receive funding for travel, study and additional support needs allowances without this having an impact on your UC award.  Any maintenance funding awarded over £28.00 a week would reduce your UC award on a pound for pound basis.

You are eligible for Universal Credit if you’re studying full-time and any of the following apply:

• you are under 21 when you start your course and you are without parental support
• you are responsible for a child
• you live with your partner and they’re eligible for Universal Credit
• you are over pension age and live with a partner who is under that age
• you are disabled and have limited capability for work (assessed by the DWP) and get disability living allowance (DLA) or personal independence payment (PIP)
• you are a single foster parent, or you are in a couple, both of you are students, and one of you is a foster parent
• you have taken time out of your course because of illness/disability and have now recovered or your caring responsibilities have ended, and you are not eligible for a grant or loan.

You may be eligible for a care experienced bursary of £202.50 per week if you have been in care or ‘looked after’ by a UK Local Authority at any stage in your life, no matter how short. This allowance is not assessed on your household income.

Types of care experience

A care arrangement must have been provided in one of the following settings:

• foster care
• kinship care
• residential care
• compulsory supervision order with no condition of residence (looked after at home)
• compulsory supervision order with a condition of residence (looked after away from home)

You will be required to provide a letter from Social Work Services to confirm which of the allowed categories of care you are eligible under.  If you are not sure if you are care experienced, or if you are having difficulty obtaining the evidence, please contact the Student Funding Office for further advice.

It’s important that you tell us you are care experienced in your funding application.  If we don’t know, you may miss out on vital support, additional funding and many of the other enhanced arrangements that the college has put in place to give you the best possible chance of success.

If you are under 22 years old you are eligible for free bus travel in Scotland and should apply for a National Entitlement Card.  Find out how to apply.   We will not award travel expenses if you can reasonably get to college using free bus travel.

If you are aged 22 and over you will get help with travel expenses if you live more than 2 miles walking distance from your campus.  If you have dependent children, we will calculate the distance via your childcare provider.   We will cover the cheapest public transport available.  This is normally a student FirstDay bus ticket or a student FirstWeek bus ticket where attendance is required for three days or more, whichever is the more cost effective. 

If using bus transport is impractical and you need to travel by another means, e.g. train, you should let us know in your funding application.  If there is no public transport available, we will award 20 pence per mile.

If, as the result of a disability, you are not able to use any kind of public transport, for example you have visual or mobility difficulties, we can consider paying a reasonable cost of travel by taxi.  It doesn’t matter if you live less than 2 miles from the campus.  You will be required to provide supporting evidence to confirm your disability. 

We will take into account any funding you already receive for travel.  Funding considered can include the mobility components of PIP, DLA and Adult Disability Payment, DLA Motability scheme and concessionary bus passes.

Use the First Group journey planner to see how to get to Glasgow Kelvin College.

You may get funding to cover essential study expenses, such as:

• specific clothing, footwear or tools necessary for the course
• essential books and texts
• items required for health and safety reasons
• the cost of a criminal check for eligible students

This allowance is paid directly to your department on your behalf, who will supply you with the necessary materials.

Study costs are not income assessed if you’re under 18.  This means if your household income is too high to receive EMA, you may still be eligible for a bursary study expense allowance.  You must still complete a funding application but will not have to submit evidence of household income.

If you are not awarded any bursary or you fail to complete your funding application, then you may have to pay some of these course-related expenses.

If you pay extra costs because of your disability, ongoing health condition, mental health condition or specific learning difficulty, you may be eligible for an Additional Support Needs for Learning Allowance. This allowance offers help towards specialist equipment, classroom support and special travel arrangements, on top of any other disability grants and benefits you might receive. It’s not assessed on your household income and does not have to be paid back.

We can help with taxi transportation costs if you are unable to use public transport due to a disability or impairment. It doesn’t matter if you live less than 2 miles from your campus.

We will need to see proof of your disability, such as:

• Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
• Personal Independence Payments (PIP)

We will also need a recent letter from a GP or other medical consultant which includes details of your disability or impairment, the expected duration (or confirmation that it is ongoing), and the potential difficulties when using public transport.

If you already receive funding for travel, we may take this into account. Funding considered can include Personal Independence Payment (PIP), DLA mobility component, DLA Motability scheme and concessionary bus passes.

You may be able eligible for a Dependant’s Allowance of £60.80 a week if you are financially or legally responsible for an adult (including caring for someone). This allowance is assessed on you and your dependant's income and your family circumstances.  Your dependant’s income should be less than £60.80 per week.

Claims for a dependant allowance must be supported by documentary evidence such as proof of benefits. This evidence could include proof of receipt of a carer’s allowance received by the student for the adult dependant.

If you’re a parentally supported student, the following family members count for the purpose of household income assessment::

• If your parents live together, we will use both their incomes.
• If your parents are separated, divorced or no longer live together, we will use the income of the parent you normally live with.
• If your parent lives with a partner or you have a step-parent who lives with you, we will use their income as well as the parent you live with.

The term ‘parent’ can refer to a mother, father, adoptive parent, carer, legal guardian, step-parent or parent’s partner.

If you’re a self-supporting student and live with a partner, we will use their income.  A partner is defined as:

• Your husband, wife or civil partner.
• Your opposite or same sex partner, if you’re in an established relationship and live with your partner as though you are married or in a civil partnership.

If you do not have a partner as defined above, we will only assess your income.

Your household income is your family’s total income before tax and National Insurance.  Household income is usually based on income for the previous tax year (2024/25 if you're applying to study in 2025/26).

How household income affects bursary funding

This works on a sliding scale, with those from lower income households eligible for more (and vice versa), to ensure those who need the extra help, get it.  The following table shows how the weekly amount of bursary maintenance allowance for a 43-week course is affected by your household income:

Any household contribution will be reduced by £152 for each child (other than the student) living in the household, who is dependent on your parents/partner.

If you have a brother, sister or parent who is also getting student finance, only one contribution is assessed for the family. We’ll work out your household contribution and share it equally between you and the other students in your family.

Unearned income

Once the household income has been assessed, a second assessment is made against the unearned income of the student.

We do not take into account any earnings from employment; however, we will use your estimated unearned income for the coming academic year.  Any unearned income received while attending college above £21.77 per week will be deducted from your bursary award on a pound for pound basis.  Unearned income includes, but is not restricted to:

• Working tax credit – but not any elements paid in respect of childcare or disability
• Income from property
• Pension income
• Interest from bonds and trusts
• Interest from bank/building society and any investments
• Dividends
• Maintenance payments paid into the household by someone who does not live in the household – this does not include child maintenance.

Benefits

If you are eligible to make a claim or continue to claim certain benefits despite being a full-time student, a bursary maintenance allowance will not be awarded.  Your application will be considered for assistance with travel, study and additional support needs allowances only.  If you claim Universal Credit, you may also receive a top-up maintenance allowance of £28 per week.

Students who may be entitled to claim/remain on benefits include:

• Lone parents with a child under 5 (income support)
• Young people under 21 who have no parental support (income support)
• Disabled students who have a limited capability for work and receive PIP or DLA (employment and support allowance)
• Certain students who receive Universal Credit

When you begin your studies, you must inform Job Centre Plus / the Department for Work and Pensions / Housing Benefit Office that you have started studying and you will need to notify them of your student income by providing your Bursary / EMA Award Letter.

Some benefits are not affected by studying. The main ones unaffected are child and working tax credits, and child benefit.   PIP and DLA are also not affected as long as you have the same care and mobility needs as before.

Some benefits are not included in the bursary assessment.  The main ones are child benefit, PIP, DLA, housing benefit, attendance allowance, child tax credit and the childcare and disability elements of working tax credit.

Anyone on benefits considering studying should seek accurate, full advice about entitlement from your local Department for Work and Pensions, Citizens Advice Bureau or other advice agency.

For the 2025/26 academic year, we normally use the household income details from the 2024/25 tax year to work out how much funding you can get. However, we understand your financial circumstances might have changed since then, for example because of redundancy or death of a parent.

If your household income is expected to drop by 15% or more compared to the 2024/25 tax year, or if you are applying for EMA and your household income was over the EMA thresholds in 2024/25 but since then has permanently dropped below it, you can ask us to calculate your funding based on your estimated household income for the current 2025/26 tax year instead.  This is not available if the income changes from year to year because of the type of employment, investments and so on, and will only be considered if the College is satisfied that any inaccuracies can be corrected within the period of the award.

At the end of the tax year, we’ll ask for evidence of your household income to see if the estimates were right. If they were wrong, you will probably have been paid too much funding and will need to pay some of it back.

You still need to complete the application giving your tax year 2024/25 information and evidence and request a current year income assessment in the additional information section of your application. This is so we can check your income has reduced by 15% or more or has dropped below the EMA threshold, and to confirm your change of circumstances and current levels of household income.

Your fee waiver eligibility will be checked through your Bursary/EMA application.

If you don’t qualify for funding or don’t want to apply for it, you should email finance@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk to discuss if you will be liable to pay a tuition fee.

Applications for August 2026 courses will open from May 2026.  Glasgow Kelvin College operates an online student funding application (CAMS).  If you have accepted a place on a course, we will send you an activation email with a link to apply.  Check your spam/junk mail as your account may have filtered our email to this folder.

We recommend that you apply as soon as possible and before 23 July to ensure your payments are set up for the start of your course.  If your application is late, your money might be too.

Applications received more than six weeks after the start date of the course will not be backdated; funding will only be awarded from the date the complete application is received.  Your application will not be treated as complete until we have received all the supporting evidence requested.

The final closing date for applications in Academic Year 2026/2027 is 31 March 2027.

FAQs

Creating An Online Account

You’ll need to activate a new CAMS account every year, even if you are a returning student.  You can’t create an account until you receive your activation email, which will include your student reference number.

Once you have activated a CAMS account, you will be able to apply for funding and view and monitor the progress of your application.  You will also be able to see what supporting evidence we have received from you and what we still need.

Upload Evidence

Once you complete your online application, you will be asked to upload supporting evidence depending on your answers and particular circumstances.  An example of evidence that could be requested is your passport to support your identity.

Using a computer, tablet or mobile phone, you can upload up to twelve pieces of evidence for each request.  You can send a photo, screenshot or scan of your documents.  Please make sure all four corners of the document are visible and the image is clear and not blurry.

All supporting evidence must be uploaded to your online application.  This will be the quickest way to get it to us and it will help us to process your application as quickly as possible.

What Happens Next?

We aim to deal with your application within 4 weeks from the day we receive the form and all supporting evidence.  You can track the progress of your application, at any time, by logging into your CAMS account.

If we assess your application and find that more information is required, we will email you to request this.  Please check your emails regularly, as this is how we will communicate.

How Will I Know If My Application Has Been Successful?

If your application has been successful, an Award Notice will be emailed to you.  This sets out your funding in more detail and lets you know when you can expect to receive your payments.  If your application is unsuccessful, we will contact you to tell you why.

Change In Circumstances

Your funding is based on the information you gave when you submitted your application.  If there has been a change in your circumstances since then which could affect the amount of funding you receive, for example you start/stop receiving benefits or working tax credit, you must notify the Student Funding Office as soon as possible.  If you are entitled to more funding, this will only be backdated to the date the change of circumstance was received.  If you are entitled to less funding and there is an overpayment, you will have to pay it back.

We aim to process these and update your award within 5 working days.  Any back payments that you’re owed will be made on the next available payment run. These take place on a weekly basis to ensure students receive their payments as soon as possible.

How Will I Be Paid?

If you have received and accepted your Bursary/EMA Award Notice and are enrolled and attending your course, your first Bursary/EMA payment should be made to your bank account on Friday 4 September 2026.  

Payments will then continue to be made into your bank account every two weeks in arrears provided you remain eligible and meet the terms and conditions of your award.

You will be able to view your Bursary/EMA payment dates and amounts for the forthcoming academic year in the ‘My Payments’ section of your CAMS account.

If your complete application was submitted after the 23 July deadline, your payments may be delayed.  Any back payments that you’re owed will be made on the next available payment run after you accept your award.  These take place on a weekly basis to ensure students receive their payments as soon as possible

For help with fee queries:

Finance Office
Glasgow Kelvin College
123 Flemington Street
Springburn
Glasgow
G21 4TD

Telephone: 0141 630 5022

Email: finance@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk

Location: Springburn Campus, 4th floor, room 432

Office Hours:  Monday – Friday: 9am to 3.30pm

For help with Bursary and EMA queries:

Student Funding

Glasgow Kelvin College
123 Flemington Street
Springburn
Glasgow
G21 4TD

Telephone: 0141 630 5186

Email: studentfunding@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk

Location: Springburn Campus, 4th floor, room 435

0ffice Hours:  Monday – Friday: 9am to 3.30pm

Glasgow Kelvin College cannot discuss any aspect of a student’s account or application with anyone other than the student without the student’s permission.  This includes the parents or partner of a student.

Students can give us consent in their Bursary/EMA application or by completing a Consent to Share Form.  Without this consent, third parties can contact Glasgow Kelvin College to ask for general information only.