Student Loan

To get a Student Loan, you must meet certain criteria.

If you're under 18, one of your parents also needs to give their permission for you to get a loan.

Residency criteria

You need to meet the residency requirements. For most people, this means you need to be either:

• a New Zealand citizen, or
• ordinarily resident in New Zealand and have:
  • lived in New Zealand for at least 3 years and
  • held a residence class visa for at least 3 years.

If you don't meet this criteria, there are other residency criteria you may meet.

Read the full residency requirements

Studying an approved course

You must be studying an approved course run by an approved education provider (but you could be based overseas).

If you're a returning student

If you're a returning student you need to meet the passing requirements.

There's also a limit to how many Student Loans you can get in your lifetime.

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Who can't get it

You can’t get a Student Loan if you’re:

• at secondary school
• bankrupt
• behind on your Student Loan repayments by $500 or more and overdue on repaying any of this amount by a year or more
• studying for less than 32 weeks and your course has less than 0.25 EFTS.

If you're under 18, you can't get a Student Loan if you're either:

• on a Youth Guarantee programme
• studying a fees-free level 1 or 2 qualification.

Depending on your circumstances, you can get a Student Loan for:

• compulsory course fees
• course-related costs
• living costs

You'll also be charged a one-off establishment fee of $60. This will be added to your Student Loan balance as soon as any payments are made.

You can get a Student Loan for up to 2 EFTS of study a year (this is around 240 points or credits).

We won't pay for:

• your lump sum hostel or hall of residence costs
• special charges, eg, penalty fees for late enrolment
• administration charges for paying by instalments
• optional service fees, eg, student association fees.

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Studying full-time

If you're studying full-time, you can get a Student Loan for:

• compulsory course fees
• course-related costs
• living costs.

In prison or on a benefit

You can only get a Student Loan for:

• compulsory course fees
• course-related costs.

Studying part-time or 55 and over

You can only get a Student Loan for compulsory course fees.

Youth Guarantee programme or fees-free Level 1 and 2 qualification

If you're over 18 and studying a Youth Guarantee programme or fees-free Level 1 or 2 qualification, you can only get a Student Loan for course-related costs and living costs.

You can apply up until the date your course finishes but we can only pay you from when you submit your application.

We must receive all the documents we need before your course finishes.

You apply online. If you're studying for more than 1 year, you need to reapply for a Student Loan each year that you study.

When you apply, depending on your circumstances, you can apply for:

• compulsory course fees
• course-related costs
• living costs.

To get your course-related costs you need to claim them in MyStudyLink once we’ve received your Student Loan contract.

Applying for the first time

If you’re applying for the first time, there are a number of steps you must take.

Had a Student Loan in the last 12 months

If you’ve had a Student Loan in the last 12 months, you can apply in your MyStudyLink account.

Had a Student Loan more than 12 months ago

If you’ve had a Student Loan more than 12 months ago, you'll need to follow a different process.

You'll get a Student Loan contract which you'll need to return to us with any documents we ask for.

Once we've got everything we need from you, we'll confirm your enrolment details with your education provider closer to the start of your course. You need to be fully enrolled before we can do this.

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Manage your application

You can manage your information online, in MyStudyLink.

When you get your payments depends on:

• when you apply
• when your course starts
• when you claim your course-related costs or request your living costs.