Effective 1 July 2026, the U.S. Department of Education will discontinue Grad PLUS Loans for all new postgraduate borrowers and will introduce strict, significantly lower borrowing limits for graduate-level study. In addition, Parent PLUS Loans for undergraduate students will be subject to borrowing caps for new borrowers for the first time.
Certain programmes, including Law (LLM, JD), may be considered as exceptional circumstances and attract higher loan limits.
For further details, please consult the official Federal Student Aid website at studentaid.gov.
Eligibility Criteria for U.S. Direct Loans
To be eligible to receive U.S. Direct Loans, you must meet all of the following requirements:
If you have any questions about your programme eligibility, please email: us.loans@durham.ac.uk
You must:
If you are a continuing Durham student, you must:
Throughout your studies at Durham, you must:
There are several steps involved in applying for U.S. Direct Loans. Each step is straightforward; however, Durham University cannot see whether you have completed all required actions unless you inform us.
It is important that all steps are completed before we begin loan origination. If we start the process and any mandatory student action is incomplete, your loan origination will fail. This will delay your funding and require you to repeat steps.
Once you have completed all required tasks and gathered all supporting evidence, please send everything in one email.
For priority processing, your email subject line must begin with USL and follow this format:
To: us.loans@durham.ac.ukSubject: USL DOE John (example for a student named John Doe)
To access U.S. Federal Student Aid, you must submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and list Durham University (University of Durham) as your nominated institution.
Once Durham receives your FAFSA data, we will send application instructions to the email address listed on your FAFSA.
You must complete the Cost of Attendance Calculator for the correct academic year:
Please note:
To borrow a Direct Loan, you must complete the Master Promissory Note (MPN) at studentaid.gov.
Important points:
Durham University requires new MPNs each academic year.
Entrance Counselling is a federal requirement and outlines borrower rights and responsibilities.
Loans cannot be originated until Entrance Counselling is completed.
Once all steps above are completed, email us the following documents:
Once your complete application pack is received:
You may use your U.S. Direct Loans as part of the financial evidence required for a UK student visa to study at Durham University. Once your loan(s) have been confirmed and originated with the U.S. Department of Education, we will issue an official funding letter. This letter will outline the federal loans you will receive while studying at Durham and can be submitted to UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) as proof of financial support.
Further details and guidance on applying for a UK student visa can be found on our Immigration webpage.
Direct Loan funds are released at the beginning of each term within the academic year. Funds can only be disbursed once you are fully enrolled on your programme and are meeting satisfactory academic progress requirements. As a result, you will not receive any loan funds until you have completed the University’s registration and verification procedures at the start of each academic year.
After the University receives your loan funds from the U.S. Department of Education, the disbursements are processed and paid to you by the University’s Finance Department. Payments are made into a UK bank account, and it is strongly recommended that all students open a GBP currency account to avoid delays or complications.
Please note that the disbursement date refers to the date the University receives your financial aid, not the date the funds will be available in your personal bank account.
If you withdraw or fall below half‑time status after receiving U.S. financial aid, the University is required to determine whether a portion of your loan funds must be returned to the U.S. Federal Aid Programme. Any funds that must be returned are processed in the following order:
Direct Unsubsidised Loan
Direct Subsidised Loan
Direct PLUS Loan
Refund calculations are applied pro‑rata for any student who withdraws before 60% of the loan disbursement period has elapsed. This calculation determines how much of your aid you “earned” based on the period you attended.
Durham University must comply with U.S. federal regulations and will therefore recalculate your financial aid eligibility according to the proportion of the academic year you completed.
Depending on the outcome of the recalculation:
You may be required to repay part of your Direct Loans to your loan servicer.
The University or your College may also be required to return funds to the U.S. Department of Education.
If the University or College must return funds on your behalf, you may be required to reimburse the institution for any amounts repaid.
You may also be liable for any associated fees or costs incurred by the University or College in returning these funds.
Students who have previously taken out U.S. Federal Student Loans will have their enrolment status reported automatically to the U.S. Department of Education once they begin a full‑time or part‑time programme at Durham University. This ensures that loan repayments are placed into deferment where eligible. If you believe your enrolment has not been correctly recorded by your loan servicer, please contact us at us.loans@durham.ac.uk.
Please be aware that once you have completed your period of supervised study, you are no longer considered to be enrolled at least half‑time. The end date of your studies is not the same as your graduation date. Doctoral students who move onto continuation status will continue to be classified as enrolled at least half‑time and may defer their loans for one additional 12‑month period.
For detailed information on deferment categories and how Durham University reports student enrolment to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) every 60 days, please refer to the
Current interest rates for Direct Subsidised, Direct Unsubsidised, and Direct PLUS Loans are available on the U.S. Department of Education's Direct Loan Program webpage.
Disclaimer:
For the avoidance of doubt, Durham University cannot provide any financial advice or make any recommendation in relation to any of these loan providers. Durham University is not a party to any Agreement you may enter into with your chosen loan provider and as such you agree that Durham University will not be held liable for any issues that may arise out of that contractual relationship. We therefore strongly suggest you carefully read any terms and conditions including but not limited to any data protection provisions provided to you by your chosen loan provider before you sign.
However, please note that In order to put into effect any loan you receive from your loan provider, Durham University may have to enter into a data sharing Agreement with your chosen loan provider. This is in order for there to be the relevant exchange of personal data solely regarding the loans being processed and any other relevant information to be processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Please note that if you decide to use any service listed on this webpage your personal details will be held outside of the UK and EEA , in the U.S and may be passed to other third parties companies as required by the provider in order to deliver the service. We strongly suggest you read the lenders privacy policy and their terms and conditions before signing up to ensure that you are content to do so.
For the avoidance of doubt, Durham University accepts no responsibility or liability for any damage caused to you, your property (computer based or otherwise), software or data caused as a result of using this service. However, if at any point after signing up, you find any unwelcome or strange activity occurring in your email account, or notice any suspected unauthorised usage of your data that you have provided to [Name of Service], then please report this immediately to fraud.support@durham.ac.uk
Durham University is a degree-awarding institution, and it only awards degrees (undergraduate, postgraduate, including both Master's and Doctoral qualifications). Therefore, reporting requirements under Gainful Employment legislation are not required.
Durham University makes every effort to ensure that the information published on this page is accurate. However, the University cannot guarantee the information may not be altered owing to circumstances beyond the University's reasonable control. Such circumstances include (but are not limited to) change in Government policy, or change of law. Any changes will be incorporated into the University's website as early as possible. Any person wishing to obtain confirmation of any particular item should contact the University via us.loans@durham.ac.uk.
