Loan eligibility
- Courses ineligible for federal loans
- Satisfactory academic progress (SAP)
- Enrolment status
- Undertaking study or research outside of the UK
Courses ineligible for federal loans
There are restrictions on the University’s ability to offer federal loan funds to students on certain courses, namely, courses which are less than half-time, include a compulsory online element or involve distance learning. Students on such courses may be eligible for a partial loan or a private student loan. This change to US law was made by the Higher Education Reconciliation Act (HERA) that came into force on July 1, 2006.
A list of courses with restricted loan eligibility is available here:Ineligible Courses 
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Satisfactory academic progress (SAP)
Students receiving financial aid must meet the institutional requirements for satisfactory performance:
- Minimum standards as required by their academic department and/or supervisor (equivalent of a ‘C’ average);
- Minimum completion rate: the student must have earned hours equal to at least 67% of the total hours attempted for the term to remain in good standing;
- The time frame for completion of the student’s programme of study must not exceed 150% of the published time for a course (e.g. no longer than 4.5 years for a 3-year DPhil, or no longer than 18 months for a 12-month MSc), and students must be studying at least half-time.
Enrolment status
You must be enrolled and continue to be enrolled at least half time at the University of Oxford to remain eligible for student loans. We will only be able to request your loan funds from the US for the scheduled disbursement if you are enrolled a minimum of 7 calendar days before each disbursement date. You can enrol through the online Student Self Service webpages.
Please note that if you suspend, withdraw or drop below half time enrolment you must email the US Loans team at us.loans@admin.ox.ac.uk immediately. You should also read our Suspend or Withdraw from your studies page.
Undertaking study or research outside of the UK
It is not normally possible for students in receipt of US loans to undertake any part of their study or research in the USA. If you will be conducting DPhil research that can only be performed in the USA, please email us.loans@admin.ox.ac.uk before applying for your loan so that we can assess your eligibility.
If you are taking part in a study abroad program, please notify us.loans@admin.ox.ac.uk immediately. This may affect your eligibility for US loans. However, enrolment in a program of study abroad approved for credit by Oxford may be considered enrolment at Oxford for the purposes of applying for federal student financial aid.