The Cost of Attendance (COA) is calculated by UAL and provides the maximum amount students can borrow (in federal and private loans) for educational purposes each academic year.
What the COA includes and how we calculate it
COA is calculated by UAL and includes:
- Tuition fees
- Room and board (housing and food allowance)
- Allowances for books and equipment
- Transportation (including airfares)
- Personal expenses
- Visa and Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) costs
- Allowance for loan origination fees, as set by the US Department of Education
The COA is the maximum amount students are eligible to borrow per academic year. Students are not required to borrow the full amount of COA.
It includes room, board, books and some travel and personal expenses. Costs such as personal expenses are difficult to estimate and vary from student to student. Students are not required to take the full COA but need to estimate their financial need to the best of their ability. In all cases the loans can be reduced/cancelled prior the disbursement and in most cases they can be increased up to COA until 31 May. An example of what your living costs might be are published on the UAL Living Costs page.
Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS)
Anyone applying for a Tier 4 (General) visa lasting 6 months or more must pay the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) as part of the online visa application. Students will then be able to use the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK.
The fee is only applicable to the students who are applying for a new visa. IHS is paid in advance for the duration of the visa, refer to the visa application guides on our Immigration and Visas page.
Exchange rate
Your COA is calculated in GBP and then converted to USD using the exchange rate set by the University.
Tuition fees
Find your tuition fees on your program page: UAL Courses A-Z pages.
When disbursing the loans, they will be converted to GBP using the exchange rate available on the day of conversion. UAL is working with a third party foreign exchange provider to process foreign transactions and deliver US loan payments. Please note that the exchange rates fluctuate daily and are out of the University’s control.
Contact us
Student Funding Service
uscanadaloans@arts.ac.uk