Funding a data science or AI master’s

Fees from £9,630 to £41,900 for 2027/28 among the courses we checked, most within or close to the Master’s Loan. The loan, the gap, and the alternatives.

Key facts

City St George’s, University of London, Data Science MSc, 2027/28
£11,170, loan covers the fee
UWE Bristol, MSc Data Science, 2027/28
£12,000, loan covers the fee
University of Reading, MSc Data Science and Advanced Computing, 2027/28
£13,600, loan leaves £394
University of Nottingham, Advanced Computer Science (AI) MSc, 2027/28
£14,600, loan leaves £1,394

Full-time data science and AI master’s we checked starting in 2027 cost from £9,630 (St Mary’s) to £41,900 (LSE); the middle fee is £12,300. The £13,206 Master’s Loan covers the whole fee for 58 of the 97 and leaves a gap on the others, before living costs. A career accelerator or bootcamp is cheaper and shorter but has no loan and is not a degree.

Courses for this guide

Data, AI and computing courses in the finder

Master’s, accelerators and bootcamps side by side. Enter your details once to see the loan position and the ways to pay for each.

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Courses with a StepEx loan

StepEx Lender Ltd offers loans for these courses. Approval is not guaranteed.

University of Cambridge · with FourthRev

StepEx loanSee the representative example
Cambridge PACE AI Engineering Career Accelerator

Short course · Part time · 6 months · Online

StepEx loan: 24 months · 0.7% APR representative

Fee
£6,933

Fee for Current offer

No SLC loan
Affordability
Outcomes
University employment rate: not available

Imperial College London · with HyperionDev

StepEx loanSee the representative example
Imperial College Data Science online bootcamp (6 month)

Short course · Part time · 6 months · Online

StepEx loan: 24 months · 0.6% APR representative

Fee
£7,465

Fee for Current full price

No SLC loan
Affordability
Outcomes
University employment rate: not available

LSE · with FourthRev

StepEx loanSee the representative example
LSE Data Analytics Career Accelerator

Short course · Part time · 6 months · Online

StepEx loan: 24 months · 0.5% APR representative

Fee
£8,850

Fee for Current offer

No SLC loan
Affordability
Outcomes
University employment rate: not available

Our ranking is impartial: whether a course has a StepEx loan is not a factor. All courses are ranked by affordability, then graduate pay at 5 years. Courses with a StepEx loan are also shown in a separate section above.

More about how we rank

Top 5 of 119 courses

110 likely affordable · affordable first, then highest graduate pay at 5 years

Sort

University College London

Data Science MSc

MSc · Part time · 2 years

Fee
£21,500

Fee for 2027/28 · whole course, over 2 years

£8,294 more than the SLC master's loan covers
Affordability
Outcomes
University employment rate: 95%

University of Warwick

Applied Artificial Intelligence MSc

MSc · Full time · 1 year

Fee
£13,690

Fee for 2027-28

£484 more than the SLC master's loan covers
Affordability
Outcomes
University employment rate: 93%

University of Southampton

MSc Data Science

MSc · Full time · 1 year

Fee
£14,000

Fee for 2027/28

£794 more than the SLC master's loan covers
Affordability
Outcomes
University employment rate: 92%

University of Southampton

MSc Artificial Intelligence

MSc · Full time · 1 year

Fee
£14,300

Fee for 2027/28

£1,094 more than the SLC master's loan covers
Affordability
Outcomes
University employment rate: 92%

Bath

MSc Artificial Intelligence (online)

MSc · Part time · 27 months · Online

Fee
£12,996

Fee for 2027 · whole course, over 3 years

The SLC master's loan covers the fee
Affordability
Outcomes
University employment rate: 90%

Open Affordability or Outcomes on any course for the detail. Courses with a StepEx loan are marked and get no preference in the order. How we work it out

Paying the university directly assumes three instalments: at the start, after 4 months and after 7 months. Estimates based on the figures shown, not advice. A StepEx loan is subject to identity, affordability and credit checks; approval is not guaranteed.

The loan against the fee

The Postgraduate Master’s Loan from Student Finance England is £13,206 for courses starting on or after 1 August 2026. It is paid to you, not the university, in three instalments a year (33%, 33% and 34%), and the amount does not depend on your income or your family’s. You repay 6% of what you earn over £21,000 a year (£1,750 a month); interest is currently 6% a year. The 2027/28 amount has not been published.

Living costs are the larger number

Save the Student’s 2025 survey put average student living costs at £1,142 a month, £529 of it rent. Over a twelve-month master’s that is about £13,700, more than the whole loan. Plan the fee and the living costs together: see Is the Master’s Loan enough?

Shorter alternatives

Career accelerators (Cambridge PACE, LSE, King’s with FourthRev) and bootcamps (Imperial, Manchester with HyperionDev) in the same subjects cost £6,933 to £8,850 and run six to seven months part-time. They are certificates, not degrees, and get no student loan. See career accelerators and bootcamps.

Ways to pay

  • Student loan. Where the course qualifies, the Master’s Loan of £13,206 (England; other UK nations differ, see the nations guide).
  • Pay the university. Ask about paying in instalments across the year; the university’s own page sets the dates.
  • Employer. Some employers pay all or part of a fee, usually with a condition that you stay for a period afterwards.
  • Scholarships and discounts. University scholarships and alumni discounts, see the scholarships guide.
  • StepEx loan. On the courses listed on the finance availability page, credit from StepEx Lender Ltd lets you pay the fee in monthly repayments after a deposit. Approval is not guaranteed. The representative example for each course is on the provider’s page.

A StepEx loan is credit from StepEx Lender Ltd, available on the courses listed on the finance availability page. Approval is not guaranteed. The representative example for each course is on the provider’s page.

Ways to pay

  • SLC

    The government SLC master's loan. The amount depends on where you live.

    How the SLC master's loan works
  • Pay the university directly

    Usually in three instalments: at the start, after 4 months and after 7 months.

  • StepEx loan

    Available on some courses here. See the representative example on the provider page.

    Check finance availability

Questions people ask

The Department for Education publishes the median pay of master’s graduates in each subject five years after graduating, and the Office for Students publishes each university’s graduate jobs rate. There is no published pay data for the accelerators or bootcamps.

Related guides

Sources and dates

Estimates, not advice.

Questions about these guides? Contact us.