Financial Support Guide

Scholarships & funding

What a dental degree costs, what you can borrow, and what you may not have to pay back.

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The money side

What five years actually costs, and what you would repay on it. Repayment depends on what you earn, not on what you borrowed.

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What five years costs, and what you would repay

Five years of fees and living costs, and the monthly repayment on a new dentist's salary. Put in your own numbers.

The money side

Illustration: a student filling in a student finance form at the kitchen table with her mother and father

Which country's funding applies to you?

Where you live

Illustration: two dental students talking over their notes, with dentistry textbooks on the desk

Funding directory: six funds for UK dental students

Funds

Illustration: a student talking to a university student-support adviser at an advice stand

Support you may be eligible for

Extra support

Illustration: a young dentist talking with a patient in the dental chair

Working in the NHS after you qualify

After you qualify

NHS Foundation Dentist (DFT) starting salary is £43,893 from 1 April 2026, and it is the same on every scheme. It is set through the Primary Dental Services Statement of Financial Entitlements Directions — the Amendment (No.3) Directions 2026 carry the 2026-27 foundation training payments — and published in the NHS Employers medical and dental pay circular.

Source: NHS Employers Pay and Conditions Circular (M&D) 1/2026 R2, issued 24 July 2026 — that circular has been revised twice, so check you are reading R2. Checked 9 September 2026.

5 years at £9,790, the most a university can charge in 2026-27. The cap rises to £10,050 in 2027-28, so a 2027 start will cost a little more. If you qualify for the NHS Bursary, year five is covered by a tuition contribution instead.

Living costs across the course. Yours will differ.

Estimated monthly repayment

£142

Under Plan 5 you repay 9% of anything you earn above £25,000. Below that, you repay nothing.

Total borrowed, excluding interest

£78,950

A UK student loan works more like a graduate contribution than a debt. Anything outstanding after 40 years is written off under Plan 5.

An estimate, not a quote

Interest is not included, fees and thresholds change year to year, and your maintenance loan depends on household income and where you study.

Which country’s funding applies to you?

You apply to the funding authority of the UK country you normally live in — not the country you study in. A student from Cardiff who studies in Manchester still applies through Wales. A student from Newcastle who studies in Glasgow still applies through England.

Living in England

The NHS Bursary described below is yours to apply for. You must have been an English resident on the first day of your first academic year.

Living in Wales

Apply to NHS Wales Student Awards Services, which funds Welsh students studying anywhere in the UK — from year five of a five-year course, or year two of four-year graduate entry.

Living in Scotland or Northern Ireland

Scotland: apply to SAAS.

Northern Ireland: apply to Student Finance NI. Both run their own schemes; the NHS Bursary below is not the one for you.

Welsh students: you are not tied to Wales afterwards

Nursing, midwifery and allied health students funded by NHS Wales must commit to working in Wales. Dentists and doctors do not. NHS Wales Student Awards Services says so directly.

The part that catches people out

Moving to England to study does not make you eligible for the English scheme. NHSBSA states that if you moved to England from elsewhere in the UK in order to study, you are not eligible.

Funding directory

Six funds for UK dental students. Each was checked against the provider’s own page on the date shown, and each links back to it. One of them is here for what it does not cover.

I normally live in

I am applying for

Showing all six. Pick either answer above and the ones that cannot apply to you fold away.

NHS Bursary

Verified 9 September 2026

NHS Business Services Authority

Covers

A non-means-tested bursary, a means-tested bursary, a tuition fee contribution paid straight to your university, and additional allowances including dependants, childcare, travel and disabled students’ allowance.

2026-27 rates

Non-means-tested: £1,081. Means-tested: up to £3,447 in London away from home, £2,855 outside London away from home, £2,384 living at home. Tuition contribution: up to £9,790 for a five or six year undergraduate course, or up to £3,930 for a graduate-entry course lasting three or four years.

Which years

Undergraduate courses of five years or more: years 5 and 6. Graduate-entry three-year courses: years 2 and 3. Graduate-entry four-year courses: years 2, 3 and 4.

Residency

You must normally live in England and be an English resident on the first day of your first academic year. If you moved to England from elsewhere in the UK in order to study, you are not eligible.

Deadline: Within 9 months of the start of the academic year. The 2026 to 2027 application window is open now.

Source: nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-bursary, checked 9 September 2026.

NHS Bursary Hardship Grant

Verified 9 September 2026

NHS Business Services Authority

Covers

A hardship payment of between £100 and £3,000.

Who can apply

On a course leading to registration as a dentist or doctor, in genuine financial hardship, unable to manage the shortfall, and having exhausted all other funding including university hardship funds and student loan support.

The catch

You must have applied for the full NHS Bursary including the means-tested element. If you, your parents or your partner declined to give financial details and you receive only the non-means-tested grant, you are not eligible.

Source: NHSBSA hardship grant page, checked 9 September 2026.

BDA Benevolent Fund

Verified 9 September 2026

BDA Benevolent Fund (independent of the BDA)

Covers

Essential living costs: housing for up to three months, water, energy, phone and council tax bills, food and household costs, travel to university or interviews, and equipment such as a laptop.

Does not cover

Tuition fees, postgraduate courses, debt of any kind, business costs, or anyone outside the UK. It does not support dental care professionals. Dentists, BDS and BChD students, former GDC-registered dentists and a dentist’s dependants are covered; other members of the dental team are not.

Who can apply

A current BDS or BChD student living in the UK, experiencing unforeseen hardship, unable to meet essential living costs this academic year, with less than £10,000 in savings. You do not need to be a BDA member.

Free without applying

Counselling, legal and debt advice and a 24-hour helpline are open to any dental student. You do not need to apply for money first.

Source: Dental students page for the support on offer, and Request help for the eligibility criteria and the savings threshold, which the students page does not carry. Checked 9 September 2026.

Christopher Frederick Edwards bursary

Verified 9 September 2026

University of Bristol

Covers

£750, paid to first-year dentistry students.

How many

Two students. This is a competitive award, not an entitlement.

Who can apply

Home UK student holding an offer for the five-year BDS Dentistry (A206) or six-year BDS Gateway to Dentistry (A208), in first year, not previously studied to degree level, household income £25,000 or under.

Source: University of Bristol, checked 9 September 2026. Bristol says applications for 2026/27 are open while its own criteria still read “first year of study in 2025/26”, and publishes no closing date — ask before you rely on it.

NHS Learning Support Fund

Verified 9 September 2026

NHS Business Services Authority

Covers

A £5,000 training grant each academic year, not means tested, plus a £1,000 specialist subject payment, £2,000 parental support, travel and dual accommodation expenses, and an exceptional support fund.

Not for the BDS

Read this one carefully. The eligible list covers dental therapy and dental hygiene at levels 5 and 6, alongside nursing, midwifery and the allied health professions. The five-year dentistry degree is not on it. If you are applying for the BDS, the NHS Bursary above is the one that applies to you.

Worth knowing

This is one of the real financial differences between the BDS and the three-year therapy and hygiene route, and it is rarely spelled out when the two are compared.

Source: NHS Learning Support Fund, checked 9 September 2026.

Lord Kitchener National Memorial Fund

Round closed

Lord Kitchener National Memorial Fund

Covers

Around 25 undergraduate scholarships a year, each worth about £2,000. Not dentistry specific.

Who can apply

British subjects who have served, or who are the son or daughter of a parent who has served or is serving on a full-time engagement in HM Armed Forces. Former service personnel are considered up to age 30. Awarded by application, competition and interview.

Status

The 2026 round closed on 31 May 2026 and no date for the next one has been published. The fund’s own page is inconsistent about dates, so check it directly rather than assuming the same deadline next year.

Source: Lord Kitchener National Memorial Fund, checked 9 September 2026.

Student finance is changing for 2027 starts

GOV.UK carries a notice that student finance is changing for courses beginning on or after 1 January 2027. Every figure above is the 2026-27 position; no 2027-28 loan or bursary rates have been published by NHSBSA or GOV.UK. If you are applying for 2027 entry, treat these as the shape of the system rather than the numbers you will get, and check GOV.UK student finance nearer the time.

Support you may be eligible for

One more place the money can come from, beyond the funds above.

University hardship funds

Universities offer hardship funds and contextual scholarships. Amounts and eligibility vary, so check each university’s own student finance pages.

Check before you apply

Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change every year. Every entry links to the provider — go there before you apply. If what you find differs from what is written here, the provider is right and we want to know.

What is not on this list. The NHS Learning Support Fund does not cover the five-year BDS. It does cover dental therapy and hygiene courses. Dentistry is funded through the NHS Bursary from year five.

Working in the NHS after you qualify

If you start a dental degree in England in autumn 2027 or later, a new requirement will apply to you. Check your intended start year, not your qualification year — that is what the rule is based on.

What the government has said

Newly qualified dentists will have to work in the NHS for a minimum period, which the government has said it intends to be at least three years. It will apply to anyone entering a dental course of study from the 2027/28 academic year. When it first consulted, in 2024, the government put the cost to the taxpayer of training a dentist at around £200,000.

What this probably means in practice

For most new dentists it is less of a change than it sounds. Almost all UK dental graduates already begin in the NHS — Dental Foundation Training, the year every new dentist completes before working independently in NHS practice, is NHS-based. The policy has been described throughout as a minimum amount of NHS work rather than a bar on private practice — but no minister has set the proportion, and until the details are published nobody knows what it will be.

What has not been decided

Quite a lot. Whether the Foundation Training year counts towards the three years. What proportion of the week must be NHS. What happens if you cannot complete it — through illness, parental leave, or going into specialty training. A first consultation ran from May to July 2024 and the government has still not published its response. Ministers have said they will consult on the details before confirming them; as of September 2026 that has not happened.

Not everyone agrees with it

The British Dental Association, which represents dentists, opposes the policy — its argument is that a tie-in would make NHS dentistry less attractive as a career, and that fixing the NHS dental contract would do more. The General Dental Council has raised concerns that it may only delay departures from the NHS rather than prevent them. The Dental Schools Council has said it is open to discussing a tie-in, with conditions. You will hear strong views on both sides, and it is worth knowing they exist.

More places too

England is expanding dental school places from 809 to 859 from 2027/28 — the first sustained expansion since 2007, with 25 new places each at Portsmouth and the University of East Anglia. More places, with a commitment attached to them.

This is an England policy. If you plan to study or work elsewhere in the UK, check the position for that nation separately.

Sources: NHS 10 Year Health Plan, July 2025. DHSC written ministerial statement, 10 March 2026. General Dental Council response to the DHSC consultation, 18 July 2024. DHSC tie-in consultation, 2024. British Dental Association on tie-ins. Dental Schools Council response. Checked 26 September 2026.

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