This post first published: 16 April 2018
On average, one in 10 UK undergraduate students will drop out of university before their second year of study – so we want to make sure you’ve got the information you need to support them.
If your students decide to take a break or withdraw from their course, it’s really important they let us know as soon as possible. This is so we can make sure they get the right amount of student finance.
They should ask their university or college to confirm to us that they’ve left their course. Once they’ve done that, we’ll reassess the amount of student finance they should get based on how long they were actually attending their course.
This might mean they’ve been paid too much – for example, if they leave their course after the first week but they’ve already been paid their student finance for the whole term.
Usually, we’ll just take the amount from any future payments they’re due. For example, if they’re overpaid by £300 and are due a future payment of £1,000, we’ll pay them £700 instead.
In some cases, such as when a student has withdrawn from their course completely, they might not be due any future payments. In this case, they might have to repay some or all of their student finance straight away. We’ll write to them to let them know how and when they need to repay this.
If they’re suspending because of an illness, they’ll still be able to get student finance for 60 days after they’ve left their course. We might be able to extend their funding for longer than this if they’d otherwise be in financial hardship, but we’d look at this on a case-by-case basis.
Students don’t need to worry about their tuition fees – we won’t pay any more Tuition Fee Loan to their university or college once they’ve left their course. They’ll still have to pay back any Tuition Fee Loan we’ve already paid to their university or college, but not until their income is over the repayment threshold.
Students should also be aware how taking a break or withdrawing from their course could affect their ability to get student finance again in the future. Find out more about how previous study affects what they can get.
