Postgraduate Loan Total Cost Calculator

This calculator projects the total lifetime cost of your postgraduate loan, including interest, over the 30-year repayment period. It models your salary trajectory and calculates annual repayments at 6% of income above £21,000, while interest accrues at RPI plus 3%, capped at 6%, on the remaining balance. Enter your loan amount, starting salary and expected pay growth, and you get year-by-year repayments, the interest that builds up, the projected balance at write-off and the total repaid measured against what you originally borrowed.

Because the repayment threshold is lower than for undergraduate loans, £21,000 against £29,385 for Plan 2, postgraduate repayments start at a lower salary. The 6% rate makes each monthly payment smaller in return. On a £40,000 salary the deduction is £1,140 a year, or £95 a month, rising to £2,340 on a £60k salary and £3,540 on an £80k one. Whether you repay in full or watch the balance written off depends on career earnings rather than on the size of the loan itself.

The Master's loan is worth up to £13,206 in total for a course starting in 2026/27, split equally across the years of a longer course, and can go towards tuition, living costs or both, since it is paid to you rather than to the university. Doctoral study has a separate loan of up to £31,122 spread across three years. Eligibility runs to UK residents under 60 taking a first Master's, and applications open on gov.uk from May for a September start. Postgraduate borrowing sits on Plan 3, where the balance is written off after 30 years.

Anyone still repaying an undergraduate loan pays both at once. Plan 5 takes 9% of income above £25k and the postgraduate loan takes 6% above £21,000, so once earnings clear both thresholds the marginal deduction is 15%. On a £50k salary that comes to £2,250 on the undergraduate loan and £1,740 on the postgraduate one, £3,990 a year in all, which is worth building into a budget before committing to a Master's.

The loan rarely covers the whole bill. Home tuition for a full-time Master's typically runs at £8,000 to £15,000, and living costs come to £12,000 to £15,000 because a Master's fills 12 months rather than an academic year, so the total sits at £20,000 to £30,000. At its maximum the £13,206 loan meets 40 to 65% of that, leaving the balance to scholarships, savings, employer sponsorship, family help, a career development loan or a bank loan.

Interest runs at RPI plus 3% throughout, held at the 6% ceiling and with no tapering by income, which is one reason the repayment picture differs from the undergraduate plans. A graduate carrying £13k of postgraduate debt on top of £30k of undergraduate debt and earning £50k to £70k clears the postgraduate loan in roughly five to eight years, because a 6% deduction on that income comfortably outruns the interest. At £35k it stretches to about 16 years, and only a career that stays close to the £21,000 threshold leaves much to be written off at 30 years.

Whether the degree pays for itself depends heavily on the field. The average UK Master's graduate earns £4,000 to £10,000 a year more than an equivalent graduate without one, and the lifetime premium runs from £100k to £400k. On an investment of roughly £18k, meaning the £13k loan plus about £5k of your own money, payback takes 2 to 5 years in STEM, finance, law or medicine, and 8 to 15 years in the humanities and arts. A career-change Master's such as a PGCE or a law conversion tends to pay back quickly where the previous profession was poorly paid.