New edition · 20 September 2026 · IMS Hub Editorial
An affordable-looking university can become a very different option when you discover that its headline fee covers only part of the year, or that your plan relies on funding you have not secured. A useful study budget begins by being clear about the amount you can contribute.
Academic's Funding and mobility section gives that amount a specific meaning: your contribution to tuition and living costs for one year, recorded in USD. Taking a moment to set it accurately helps you read the financial side of your university options more sensibly.
Give the annual number a clear meaning
Open Annual budget and use the amount controls to record your yearly contribution. The editor includes a slider, quick amounts and a numeric field labelled Your yearly contribution in USD. Check the currency and period before saving.
For example, if the money you have set aside needs to cover more than one year, entering the whole amount as an annual contribution would describe a different plan. Similarly, a tuition-only figure leaves out the living-cost contribution the field asks you to consider.
Use the amount that reflects your current plan. If that plan changes, update the saved figure and revisit the financial information in your matches. The purpose is to give your research an honest constraint you can work with.
Record how the contribution will be funded
Funding source offers Family, Self-funded, Sponsor, Scholarship, Loan and Mixed. Choose the description that best represents the plan behind your annual amount.
There is also an explicit I need full scholarship funding control. This records that your plan depends on full funding, rather than leaving Academic to interpret an empty budget field. Use it when that is the situation you need your search to reflect.
Choosing a scholarship-dependent plan records a need. To investigate whether an option can meet it, open that option's Scholarships section and read the published coverage, eligibility and application information where available. A scholarship's name alone tells you very little about the part of the cost you would still need to meet.
Read costs in the period in which they are published
On a university detail page, Fees & living costs presents the available fee information in its listed currency and billing period. Read those labels before relating the amount to your annual budget.
A tuition figure, a complete mandatory annual cost and a one-time charge answer different questions. Academic's matching explanation can distinguish complete comparable cost evidence from a partial fee or an unresolved total. Open Your match to see the basis given for affordability when that factor is available.
If a preparation route appears, the page separates preparation costs from degree costs. Give both stages attention. The first course and the later degree can have different fees and conditions, and the preparation step has its own place in your plan.
Keep mobility context accurate
Funding and mobility also contains Visa refusal history. It is preparation context, and it does not affect the Academic ranking or completion percentage. Record relevant history accurately if you use the field; completing it is not a way to increase a match score.
Before leaving the section, read the annual amount and funding source together. Do they describe the same plan? Then save and choose one current university option to investigate. Read its costs, its funding details and any affordability explanation as a connected set.
Open Academic and give your next search a budget you can explain in one sentence: what you can contribute for a year, and where it will come from.
