Financial support for dietetic students in the UK

Lots of students take a loan from a student loan service to pay their university fees and other living costs. But if you are studying dietetics, depending on where you study in the UK, you could get your fees paid, and apply for funding towards your fees and other costs such as living, travel and childcare.

England

If you want to become a dietitian and live in the UK you can apply for a grant of £5,000 for each year you study.

The grant does not need to be paid back and is available for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
You can also apply for parental support, travel, accommodation and exceptional hardship grants.

There are some rules about who can apply. Full information is on the government website and on the dietetics page of all universities that run the course.

Northern Ireland

You do not have to pay university fees if dietetics is your first undergraduate degree and you are from Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland or the EU. The fees are paid by the Department of Health.

You can also apply for a range of grants, including maintenance, special support, disability, childcare, adult dependants, parents’ learning and travel,depending on your circumstances.

For postgraduate courses, part-funding is available and there is an allowance for disabled students.

Full information is on the Ulster University website who run the only dietetics courses in Northern Ireland.

Scotland

Student Award Agency Scotland can help undergraduate and postgraduate higher education students find the right information, support and funding. 

You can also apply for a living cost grant if you are a single parent or have dependents.

You can apply for a disabled student's allowance if you are on an undergraduate or postgraduate course.

Wales

You do not have to pay university fees if dietetics is your first undergraduate degree, or you are doing a postgraduate diploma (PG Dip) in dietetics, and you live in the UK.

You can also get a £1,000 grant, a bursary towards living costs and other costs like childcare, and disabled student, dependents and parental learning allowances.

Students from the EU and have lived in the UK for three years before the course starts can also apply for the same package as UK students. If they haven’t lived in Wales for this period of time, they can still apply to get their fees paid but not for the other bursaries.

To qualify for any funding you have to commit to working in Wales after you graduate for two years (if you did a three year course) or 18 months (if you did a two year course). If you cannot commit to this you can still study a course in Wales but need to fund yourself or through the student loan service in your home country.

For more information visit the student award services pages on the NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership website.