If you have school-age kids and you've been thinking about going back to university, the intake you pick matters more than which course.

September is the intake that tends to line up with the school year your family already lives by. Autumn half-term, Christmas, spring half-term and Easter usually overlap rather than fight your week. Your first Student Finance instalment typically lands close to the week your kids start the new term.

Applications for September 2026/27 are open now. Student Finance England encouraged full-time undergraduate applicants starting between 31 August and 31 December 2026 to apply by 15 May 2026 if they wanted funding in place by term start, so the practical action is this month.

Full 2026/27 breakdown of why September often works for adult students, what to do this month, and how the funding lands: link in the first comment.