Student Awards Agency for Scotland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) is an Executive Agency of the Scottish Executive Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department and is responsible for paying the tuition fees for Scottish higher education students and awarding student loans.
The agency is part of the Scottish Executive and is responsible to Scottish Ministers.
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[edit] Services provided
SAAS provides many vital services to Scottish students. Some of the most important are:
[edit] Tuition fees
Scottish students (unlike those from the rest of the UK) have their tuition fees paid for them. SAAS will pay these fees regardless of financial situation. However, a percentage of this cost is recouped by the SAAS through a Graduate Endowment.
[edit] The loan
SAAS also offers a loan to help fund Scottish students at university (The loan is provided by the Student Loans Company but students apply through SAAS). Everyone can apply a loan of at least £560 loan, which is a non-income assessed loan. The maximum loan is £4300, however, this is income assessed and the family would need to make less than £19730 a year. An applicant living at home will receive less than if they were to stay in University accommodation.
Repayment of the loan will commence when a student leaves University. They are expected to pay 9% of any income over £15000 via the HMRC. The Student Loans Company is responsible for administering the customer's account and will instruct HMRC on when to start and stop repayment.
[edit] Bursary
The Bursary is a non-repayable income assessed “gift” of up to £2455. To be applicable to receive this amount an applicant’s family would need a joint income of less than £17,500. A family making more than £31775 can not apply for a Bursary.
[edit] Graduate Endowment
The Graduate Endowment is a fixed amount that graduates must pay after completing their degree successfully. Students need to pay the Graduate Endowment to allow continued funding of future students, as this money is ring-fenced to allow payment of tuition fees and the Young Student's Bursary and Student Outside Scotland Bursary.
Some students do not need to pay graduate endowment. They include, but are not limited to, students whom have received disabled student allowance and those studying specified courses. It is always best to contact the agency to find out if you are liable, or not.
Repayment of the endowment is by the same method as described above for loans, i.e. administered by the Student Loans Company.
