Student Finance, a country-by-country guide to the cost of studying, from tuition loans to grant repayment and back-to-school spending

The cost of studying is not only tuition, and every scheme has its own deadline. Here we work through student finance system by system and country by country.

We cover when to apply for tuition and maintenance loans and how repayment works, the conditions under which a grant has to be paid back, and what going back to school actually costs. Rules that differ by country are covered together: Korea's term-by-term loan schedule, US FAFSA with Pell Grant and IBR repayment, the UK's split of tuition and maintenance loans with the Clearing timetable, and Spain's MEC grant repayment thresholds.

Miss an application window and you usually wait until the next term. So we put the calendar first and the paperwork and conditions after it.