Funding · Northern Ireland
Department of Health (NI) healthcare bursary for AHP students
Department of Health (NI) healthcare bursary for AHP students is administered by Student Finance NI, administering the bursary on behalf of the Department of Health (Northern Ireland). The figures below are the published 2026/27 rates. No cash amounts are published for its elements, so this page sets out the conditions rather than a total. 8 of the allied health professions on this site qualify.
What it is
Northern Ireland keeps the old-style bursary model for allied health professions. If you study a first primary AHP degree at a university in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health pays your tuition fees in full and you can apply for a means-tested healthcare bursary towards living costs, plus a reduced-rate maintenance loan that is not income-assessed. Places are commissioned by the Department, so the number of funded places is capped each year.
The elements below are separate awards under one scheme, and they are conditional in different ways. Some are flat payments made to everyone on an eligible course; some are assessed against household income; some reimburse costs you have already incurred and are worth nothing to you unless you incur them. Reading the scheme as a single headline figure is the mistake that leads people to budget for money they will never see.
A single total for this scheme cannot be computed from the published figures. Several elements — Tuition fees paid by the Department of Health, Means-tested healthcare bursary, Reduced-rate non-income-assessed Maintenance Loan and Extra allowances — are described in the scheme rules without a rate attached, or the rate is set individually. This page publishes what is stated and leaves the rest blank rather than estimating it; the administering body will give you a figure for your own circumstances.
- Nation
- Northern Ireland
- Academic year
- 2026/27
- Administered by
- Student Finance NI, administering the bursary on behalf of the Department of Health (Northern Ireland)
- Routes funded
- Undergraduate degree
- Elements
- 4
What each element pays, and on what condition
The amount column is the figure the administering body publishes. Where it is blank, no rate is published — either the award is assessed individually or the guidance sets limits rather than a single sum.
| Element | Amount | Basis | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuition fees paid by the Department of Health | Not published | academic year | The Department of Health in Northern Ireland pays tuition fees in full, directly to the university, for students on a first primary AHP degree course studying in Northern Ireland. |
| Means-tested healthcare bursary | Not published | academic year | Income-assessed bursary towards living costs. The amount depends on your own and your family's income. Student Finance NI does not publish a rate in its 2026/27 guide and directs students to contact their local SFNI office for the level of bursary available, so no amount is recorded here. |
| Reduced-rate non-income-assessed Maintenance Loan | Not published | academic year | Students eligible for the means-tested healthcare bursary may also apply for a reduced-rate Maintenance Loan that is not income-assessed, through their local Student Finance NI office. No rate is published in the 2026/27 guide. |
| Extra allowances | Not published | academic year | Additional allowances may be payable, for example if you are disabled or have dependants. |
Work out what you would get
This is arithmetic on the scheme’s own published figures, and nothing else. Elements published on the same basis — here, per academic year — are added together. Where the scheme publishes more than one rate for the same payment, only the highest is counted, because you can only receive one of them. Elements published on a different basis are listed separately below and not added, because adding a per-claim reimbursement to an annual grant would produce a number that means nothing.
A total appears only where every element in the group carries a published figure. If one does not, the components that exist are still shown and the total is left uncomputed. That is the honest position: an incomplete sum presented as a total is worse than no total at all, because you would budget against it.
Every eligible profession
- Tuition fees paid by the Department of Health — no figure published
- Means-tested healthcare bursary — no figure published
- Reduced-rate non-income-assessed Maintenance Loan — no figure published
- Extra allowances — no figure published
No amount is published for any of these elements, so there is nothing to add up. The scheme is real and the entitlements are real — the rates are simply assessed individually rather than published as a table.
Applies identically to these 8 professions.
Who qualifies
The scheme funds the undergraduate degree route . If you are training by another route, this is not the scheme that applies to you — compare the routes for your profession before you apply.
- Physiotherapist — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Occupational therapist — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Diagnostic radiographer — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Therapeutic radiographer — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Speech and language therapist — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Podiatrist — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Dietitian — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Paramedic — what the job is · undergraduate degree and degree apprenticeship
What does not qualify
Exclusions decide more applications than entitlements do. Read them before you commit to a course on the assumption that it is funded.
How it works with student loans
The healthcare bursary replaces the standard means-tested maintenance package rather than sitting on top of it: bursary students get a reduced-rate maintenance loan that is not income-assessed instead of the full-rate loan. Note the asymmetry within Northern Ireland - the AHP bursary is means tested, while the pre-registration nursing and midwifery bursary is non-means-tested.
This is the part applicants most often get wrong, and getting it wrong is expensive: apply for the wrong student finance product and you can end up with less money, no entitlement to the scheme on this page, and a course already under way. Check which product your specific course is designated for with the university before you submit anything, because designation is set course by course rather than by the award name.
How to apply
Applications go to Student Finance NI, administering the bursary on behalf of the Department of Health (Northern Ireland), not to your university, and most schemes run to a deadline set from the start of the academic year. Apply as soon as you have an unconditional place — several elements are assessed from the start of the year and cannot be backdated indefinitely.
How this compares with the rest of the UK
The same course can be funded on four different bases depending on where you study. If you are choosing between universities in different nations, this is a bigger financial difference than tuition fee headlines suggest.
The other nations
- NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF) — England · 2026/27
- Undergraduate-rate student finance for pre-registration postgraduate (MSc/PGDip) courses — England · 2026/27
- Postgraduate Master's Loan (England) — England · 2026/27
- SAAS standard student support for AHP courses (Scotland) — Scotland
- Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary (PNMSB) — Scotland · 2025/26
- NHS Wales Bursary Scheme — Wales · 2026/27
- Degree apprenticeship funding (England) — England · 2026/27
Carry on from here
- All funding schemes — Every scheme across the four nations
- Compare training routes — What each route costs and what it pays
- Every approved course — Filter by nation to see which funding regime applies
- NHS pay bands — What you earn once you are registered
- Degree apprenticeships — The salaried alternative to student funding
- Sources and licensing — Where these figures came from
Where this page’s data comes from
Figures published by Student Finance NI, administering the bursary on behalf of the Department of Health (Northern Ireland) for 2026/27. Rules change every academic year — confirm with the scheme’s own guidance before you rely on any figure here.
- HCPC register summary and registrant snapshots (aggregate)Health and Care Professions Council · No open licence stated; HCPC copyright · checked 3 September 2026
- studentfinanceni.co.ukCited page
- nidirect.gov.ukCited page
- health-ni.gov.ukCited page