How much you pay back depends on how much you earn.

While you'll never pay back more than nine per cent of your salary above £21,000, the more you earn above that threshold, the bigger your monthly repayments will be.

On the average graduate salary of £25,000, you'll pay back £30 a month.

But starting salaries vary depending on the job you want to do. Some jobs have higher starting salaries than others and that could mean you might start paying back sooner than your friends in lower-paid roles. Some jobs will have starting salaries below the £21,000 threshold, which means you won't pay anything back straight away.

If you know what starting salary you might expect in your career, you can calculate how much you might end up repaying after university with this repayments calculator.

Move the sliders to reflect your tuition fees, maintenance loan, likely starting salary and length of course, and see whether you're likely to pay back the full amount of your loan before the 30 year cut-off point.

The calculator can also help you decide whether it's worth paying your fees back early. The government recently confirmed (February 2012) that no charges or so-called 'early redemption penalties' will be imposed on graduates who decide to pay off their student loan early.

However, if it's unlikely that you'll pay off the full amount you borrowed at current prices, it's likely to be a bad idea to pay them back early. But if you're going to be a high earner with a long work life ahead of you, then paying back early is a good way to avoid the above-inflation interest charges.

For more information on how this works can be found here

MoneySavingExpert.com have also created a calculator especially for part-time students.