In order to help out those students who are still waiting for their loans, many universities in England and Wales have started to use their hardship funds.
As the Student Loans Company (SLC) has yet to process loan applications that should have made cash available in September, thousands of students had to get financial assistance to pay for books, food and rent.
According to a survey by BBC this week, most of the universities said that they had to use their hardship funds to pay out an average of £44,000 to help needy students.
