Mastering your finances

Can you really afford to do a postgraduate course? Debt is increasingly a disincentive for graduates thinking of staying on at university. The average student graduates with £12,000 of debt spread over loans, credit cards and overdrafts, according to a NatWest survey.

But help with funding is available. If you have a specific course in mind, begin your search by asking the course leaders how previous students gained financial help. A number of universities offer postgraduate scholarships and will widely advertise them from their websites.

State funding is limited. The Department for Education and Skills has information on postgraduate funding for England and Wales at dfes.gov.uk/studentsupport, but by and large the only support available is for students wishing to train as teachers or enrol on social care courses. Students in Scotland can find information about the Postgraduate Student Allowances Scheme at student-support-saas.gov.uk while students in Northern Ireland should go to student-support.org.uk.

There are some public-funding opportunities through research councils and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, though these are highly competitive and your chances are best in science and engineering subjects.

And, of course, you can always go to the banks. Career development loans (CDLs) of up to £8,000 are a popular source of funding for postgraduate study, not least because they allow postgrads to suspend repayment until their course has finished. You can also choose to clear the loan over a period of between one and five years.

However you'll need to convince the banks - Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and the Co-operative Bank take part in the scheme - that you'll get a reasonably well-paid job as a result of your course, which is why CDLs are normally taken out for courses such as law, business management and IT where employment potential is high.

CDLs may also be out of reach of students who have already racked up a bad credit history.

Students were warned this week to keep a close eye on their credit files and to ensure that they maintain all payments up to date on credit card and loan debt - otherwise they could be in for a nasty shock when it comes to loans and credit in the future.

The major credit reference agencies such as Equifax and Experian hold detailed files on our financial histories, which start as soon as we open a bank or credit related account. "We would advise students to keep an eye on their credit files to make sure all the information held on them is accurate," says Richard Brown, chief executive of Moneynet, an online financial data comparison site.

Keeping within your overdraft limit and making credit card payments frequently is the key to preserving your credit record and making you someone that the banks want to lend to. "It's crucial that students understand the importance of not over-committing themselves as missed payments could mean they have accumulated an adverse credit history even before they embark on a career," says Richard. "It could take years to repair."

If you have bad debts, the advice from the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux is to take action immediately, communicating with your creditors, then sticking to the minimum payments and standard payment times agreed.