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Find out how your US Loans will be disbursed, how you will receive the funds and further information on exchange rates and fees
Disbursement Dates
Direct Loans are disbursed by the US Department of Education electronically to UCL. The funds will be requested in two equal instalments:
The first instalment will be 23 September 2024.
The second instalment will be at the mid-point of your academic year (usually Feb/Mar). This date will be confirmed to you in your preliminary loan confirmation.
Please note the first disbursement will not be requested until you have enrolled at UCL and the second disbursement is subject to Satisfactory Academic Progress.
Loan Fees
The U.S. Department of Education applies a fee charge on Direct Subsidised, Unsubsidised and Direct Plus loans, details of which can be found on the Student Aid website. UCL does not charge any fees. If you take out a PLUS Loan, loan fees will be included as part of your Cost of Attendance. UCL’s third-party agent Convera, acts on our behalf receiving the USD loan funds and converts this into the equivalent GBP according to their daily retail exchange rate (and not the Interbank rate).
Paying Your Tuition Fees
Your disbursements will be applied first to your tuition fees. US students with Direct Loans are permitted to pay their tuition fees in two instalments to correspond with the above disbursement schedule (please ignore any general information from UCL advising otherwise). Any credit balance due will be paid to you within 10 working days of the disbursement date.
For those who are using Direct Loans to pay only part of their tuition fees (and paying the rest from other sources), you can log into your Portico account after each disbursement to check how much is outstanding to pay for that payment period.
Please note, your overall Direct Loan amounts will not show on your Portico account - you will only see the portion of the loan that was applied to your tuition fees.
Receiving Your Living and Course Materials Funding
As loan funds will not be requested until you enrol at UCL, and maintenance refunds not paid until up to 10 working days after the disbursement date, please ensure you have sufficient money to cover your living and course costs until you receive your first loan disbursement. All payments will be made by direct bank transfer via our third-party agent Convera, who will contact you directly to collect your bank details shortly before the first disbursment is due. Where possible we advise all students to open a UK bank account, to ensure quick access to your funds and avoid unnecessary bank charges.
Exchange Rate
We are aware that the US Dollar-Sterling exchange rate may fluctuate over the course of the academic year. However, we will not be able to change a cost of attendance assessment based on any fluctuation in this exchange rate during the academic year. The actual exchange rate is determined by Convera at the time of disbursement, and cannot be altered. The cost of currency conversion is a necessary cost when studying at an overseas insitution such as UCL.