Pay your tuition fees if you have sponsorship or a scholarship | Finance

If you have an approved scholarship provider or sponsor, then it is their responsibility to pay either all or part of your tuition fees. If there are any leftover fees to pay, then you are responsible for making a payment.

What you need to do if you have full or partial external funding

If you are receiving funding from an approved scholarship provider or sponsor, you must send a proof of your funding to the Fees and Student Support soon as possible, and before you begin online student registration.
Delay in providing this information to us may result in you being charged the first instalment.
Register as a student online and pay any outstanding fees in full, or set up an instalment plan.

Your funding must be confirmed before the start date of your programme.

The University reserves the right to reject a sponsor. If this happens, then it is your responsibility to pay for your student academic fees.

If you have external funding and other funding sources

If you have more than one loan or scholarship, or a combination of both, please check the guidance for each funding type you receive to confirm whether evidence is required.

During online student registration, you can let us know that you have multiple funding sources and provide card details to complete registration while we update your record.

Once your funding information has been updated, if any fees remain payable by you, we will issue an invoice, and you will be able to pay in full or set up an instalment.

If you receive the funds directly

If your sponsor or scholarship provider gives you the money directly, then it is your responsibility to pay for your student academic fees. In this case, you will be defined as a self-funded student.

A family member or friend cannot be your sponsor. If you are supported by a family member or friend, then you will also be defined as a self-funded student.

Self-funding payment information

Step 1: Send us proof of your funding

You must provide us with proof of funding from your approved sponsor or scholarship provider as soon as possible, and before starting online registration. This ensures we can correctly invoice the organisation responsible for your student academic fees. If we do not receive the evidence of your funding, or have not been able to validate it before you register online, you will need to provide card details to complete registration. The evidence should be a written authorised agreement that confirms the following:

The evidence should be a written authorised agreement that confirms the following:

how much of your fees they will pay (this could be the amount or percentage)
the type of fees they will pay (sponsors usually pay for student academic fees so you may receive an invoice for other types of fees, for example University accommodation fees)
how many years they will financially support you
the purchase order (PO) number (if required by your sponsor)
the full name of your sponsor who authorised the agreement
the contact details of your sponsor

In your email, include the subject heading: ‘Evidence of external funding’.

Email Fees team

Funding unconfirmed

If you have not submitted confirmation of your funding, or we have not been able to validate it before your registration, you will need to provide card details to continue with the registration process. These details will remain active until your funding evidence has been received and verified. Please refer to the Instalment plan dates 2025 - 2026 for details of payment dates and amounts.

Once you have completed registration and we have received and verified your funding evidence, we will invoice your scholarship provider or sponsor. If you have partial external funding, then it is your responsibility to pay for the rest of the student academic fees not covered by your funding. You can keep the instalment plan set up during the registration process, or pay the full amount through MyFinance channel once your invoice has been issued.

Your scholarship provider or sponsor must pay the invoice we send them within 30 days of the invoice date. If not, then you will be sent an invoice and your instalment plan will be activated.

If you have provided proof of funding

If you have provided proof of your external funding and if your award letter states the funding is for your whole programme, then you do not need to send us the evidence for future years of study.

Step 2: Complete your student registration online

As part of the student academic fees payment process, you will need to complete your student registration online for each academic year and pay your student academic fees, or set up an instalment plan.

How to complete your student registration

Step 3: Pay for your fees (if partially funded or support is taken away)

If you are partially funded

If you receive partial external funding, then you will need to pay the rest of your student academic fees yourself. In this case, you must pay your student academic fees during online registration by one of the following payment methods:

one payment (by card, bank transfer or online payment platform)
set up an instalment plan

If you lose funding from your scholarship provider or sponsor

If your sponsor takes away their support from you or they fail to pay the invoice, then you must pay the remaining fees. In this case, we will send you an invoice that states how much you owe.

It is important that all your student academic fees are paid by the end of your programme otherwise you will not be able to graduate or enrol to the next academic year.

Check My finance

You will be able to see a record of your tuition fees payments by checking My finance by logging into MyEd.

Do you need help?

If the card payment is refused

A card payment may be refused if:

there is not enough money in the cardholder’s account
the card limit is not high enough
the bank suspects the payment may be fraudulent and prevents it going out

University’s policy on collecting late fees

If you have other fees to pay

You may need to pay other fees for your programme (for example, module fees or dissertation fees).

You can find out if you need to pay extra fees for your programme on the University’s degree finder.

Undergraduate degree finder

Postgraduate degree finder

Our fee definitions

The amount you owe will appear in My finance after your invoice has been raised.

Module fees and individual course fees

Any module or individual course fees must be paid as soon as possible and before the start date of your course. You cannot pay these as instalments.

Dissertation fees and postgraduate research costs

Dissertation fees and postgraduate research costs can be paid as part of your instalment plan.

If you have paid a deposit

If you have paid a deposit towards your programme, this will be deducted from the total amount of fees you have to pay.

Your deposit will not appear on your invoice.

If you pay your deposit early in the year, there may be a delay before this shows on your student account.

If you pay your tuition fees in one payment, make sure you deduct the deposit from the total amount.

If you pay with RCP (Recurring Card Payment), the deposit will automatically be deducted from your 3 instalments.

If you have problems paying your fees

If you need an extension up to 10 days, please email finance.helpline@ed.ac.uk and confirm the date you are expecting to make this payment by and how it will be paid.

If you require a further extension please complete this form request more time to pay the University.

This article was published on 2024-07-01