US Federal Student Aid

The amount you can borrow depends upon your calculated Cost of Attendance, minus any other expected financial aid (EFA) this can include things like bursaries, scholarships, grants and other awards. 

The Cost of Attendance (COA) only includes study-related costs i.e. tuition fees, plus living and estimated study expenses. Living expenses include accommodation, local travel costs (plus the estimated cost of two return flights), course materials and books, and miscellaneous expenses.

Once your eligibility has been assessed, your COA will be confirmed to you by email and you will be asked to read this document carefully, before signing and returning to the university.

Once you have accepted your unconditinal offer from us, you will need to complete the following process.

Step 1 - Complete a FAFSA

You will need to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. The form will ask you to include the institution's Federal School Code. For Staffordshire University this is: 042757. 

Step 2 - Contact us

Once your Student Aid Report (SAR) or Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) has been generated, please contact us with the following:

• Full Name
• Social Security Number
• Date of Birth
• Your Staffordshire University, 8 digit Applicant I.D number

This will allow us to make a full assessment of your application and calculate the amount of funds which you will be able to borrow.

Step 3 - Accepting your loan

We will send an Award Letter to you via email, which will include a Funding Notification offer for your chosen year of study. Please review the information and loan amounts carefully, as these amounts will reflect what we plan to disburse under you Master Promissory Note(s). Please note that you have the right to decline the loan or, to specify and accept a lower loan amount if desired.

Once you have completed this document, please return it to the email address in the Award Letter.

Step 4 - Completing the Master Promissory Note(s)

At this stage you must complete a Master Promissory Note on the US Student Aid website. This is a legal document in which you promise to repay your loans to the US Department of Education.

Please note that if you are accepting a Parent PLUS Loan, as well as Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans, there will need to be a separate MPN completed.

In addition, an MPN must be completed for each academic year, foreign institutions cannot use multi-year MPNs.

Step 5 - Entrance Counseling

Once Step 4 is complete, all applicants must complete Entrance Counseling. This is a Federal Government requirement, which is there to help and advise, and also ensures that applicants understand the responsibilities assumed when accepting US Financial Aid.

Step 6 - Processing your Loan

Please contact the International Recruitment Inbox once you have completed the previous 2 steps, to allow us to check that we have everything we need, in order to progress to Origination and Disbursement of the loan.

Steps 4, 5 and 6 must be repeated for each academic year that you wish to receive US Financial Aid.

Cost of Attendance

There are several costs that are considered when calculating cost of attendance. The links to our webpages below will help you to get an approximate idea and we will more accurately calculate this as part of the application process:

• View our tuition and course fees. 
• View our University recommended accommodation options at our Stoke-on-Trent Campus and London Campus
• View local area transport information for Stoke-on-Trent.
• See our estimated cost of living in both Stoke and London as a comparison. 
• You’ll be able to see individual course pages for reading lists and any additional costs involved in your chosen course such as field trips etc. 

Funding and Finance

• View our Federal Loans Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy for students in receipt of US federal loans
• View our Return of Title IV Funds policy for students in receipt of US Federal Aid
• For information on fees and our scholarship and funding opportunities view our scholarships and fees page 

Health and Wellbeing

• View our information and policies on Health and Wellbeing
• View information and policies around Disability and Disability Support
• View further information around Equality and Diversity issues 

Data Management and Protection

View our privacy policy and information on how we use and store data.

Staisfactory Academic Progress must be maintained in accordance with the Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) Policy. 

As required by Federal regulations, we confirm the attendance of all students in receipt of US Financial Aid, online through the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS).