Early-in-year student withdrawal notifications: academic year 2018/19 to 2021/22 up to 31/08/2022
In December 2020, owing to the significant public interest, the Student Loans Company (SLC) took the decision to publish data on the withdrawal notifications it receives from higher education providers (HEPs) in order to contribute towards an understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic may be impacting students.
To provide insight into potential emerging trends, SLC published updates of these figures throughout academic year (AY) 2020/21. Due to continuing interest, SLC continued to publish this series throughout academic year 2021/22. The first publication in the AY 2021/22 series included data effective 29 November 2021 and so to provide a full year picture, this publication offers a further update, effective 31 August 2022.
Based on data at this effective date, SLC has seen an overall increase (+ 23%) in student withdrawal notifications for the purpose of student finance in this academic year, compared to the same point in the previous year. This is evident within UK students funded by Student Finance England, Student Finance Wales, and Student Finance Northern Ireland, offset by a decrease in overall EU (outside UK) students.
When omitting the outlying academic year of AY 2020/21, due to factors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase between AY 2019/20 and AY 2021/22 is + 30% at this point of the academic year.
For other context, please refer to SLC’s statistics publication series entitled ‘Student support for higher education’ which include academic year-end figures for paid / awarded applications for the academic years included in this publication.
This is an ad hoc publication from SLC to provide the number of notifications that SLC has received from HEPs informing that a student has withdrawn from their course for AY 2021/22. The data is compared to the same time period in the three previous academic years (2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21).
SLC requires HEPs to submit accurate and timely notifications of withdrawal decisions when a student has withdrawn from a university or college. This is to ensure our payments to the student and to the HEP are correct.
A withdrawal applies if the student leaves and does not intend to re-engage in their course. It means there is no further obligation on the student to pay fees to the HEP. A withdrawal terminates a student’s period of student finance eligibility and SLC will recalculate their maintenance and tuition fee support.
The data shows a total count for UK & EU (outside UK) domiciled students funded by Student Finance England, Student Finance Wales and Student Finance Northern Ireland only. Scotland domiciled students studying in the UK have not been included. SLC does not hold as robust data concerning Scotland funded students as such notifications are handled by Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS).
The time period covered by this publication is from 1 August until 31 August (of the following academic year) inclusive for each academic year. For context, 1 August 2021 was the earliest course start date for the 2021/22 academic year and 31 August 2022 is the date of the latest data refresh of SLC databases prior to publication of this information. The same relative effective dates of the relevant year have been used for the previous academic years provided to allow for comparison.
Withdrawal notifications may be deleted later in the academic year if it is deemed that they were raised in error. Figures from AY 2018/19 and 2019/20 were retrospectively reported, so any adjustments will have been accounted for in the reported volumes. Figures reported for AY 2020/21 and 2021/22 were captured in real-time, so adjustments may still be made as the academic year progresses. Therefore, direct comparisons to these earlier years at this effective date should be done with caution.
The irregular start to AY 2020/21 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic included a number of courses starting later than in previous years, some universities extended the ‘cooling off’ period before the student becomes liable for tuition fees and, more generally, increased the potential for administrative disruption. It is possible any changes in trends may have resulted from students withdrawing from their courses later into the academic year than in previous years, combined with HEPs providing withdrawal notifications to SLC later. Therefore, while the previous years’ data has been provided for comparison, any conclusions should be made with caution noting the irregularities of AY 2020/21.
What can you use these statistics for?
This data includes only those students approved for funding by SLC and confirmed as enrolled and attending their course between AY 2018/19 and 2021/22. It does not include students who have not been awarded student finance from SLC. Whilst the majority of UK students apply for student finance, not all do and therefore, these statistics should not be used to analyse trends or to draw conclusions regarding the full UK student population.
Caveats and data definitions
- The data included in this release is full-time and part-time undergraduates only. Postgraduate data is not included.
- Data is produced from notifications of ‘Withdrawal’. Any notification which has been marked as ‘Never Attended’ or ‘Deceased’ are not included within these counts. Notifications which are marked as ‘Suspended’ are also not included.
- Any notification that contains manual errors regarding notification, withdrawal or course dates have been excluded as these will be required to be re-submitted by HEPs.
- Any notification that is associated with an ineligible application for student finance has been excluded.
- Any notification which has been marked as ‘Deleted’ by HEPs has been excluded.
Results
Figure 1: Student withdrawal notifications from HEPs by domicile and academic year: 2018/19 to 2021/22
Coverage: Students domiciled in UK and EU (outside UK) domiciled receiving student support (except Scotland-funded students)
Effective date: 31 August of relevant academic year
| Count of withdrawal notifications | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domicile | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
| England | 29,523 | 27,085 | 28,728 | 35,664 |
| Wales | 1,784 | 1,651 | 1,770 | 2,509 |
| Northern Ireland | 1,184 | 894 | 781 | 1,232 |
| EU (outside UK)* | 916 | 928 | 1,085 | 353 |
| Total | 33,407 | 30,558 | 32,364 | 39,758 |
Note:
- *EU (outside UK) are funded by either England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
- Figures include only full-time and part-time undergraduate students (not postgraduate).
- Constituent parts may not add to totals due to rounding.
- Due to irregularities noted, such as late course start dates AY 2020/21, the year-on-year figures may not be comparable.
Figure 2: Student withdrawal notifications from HEPs by domicile as % of total withdrawal notifications: 2018/19 to 2021/22
Coverage: Students domiciled in UK and EU (outside UK) domiciled receiving student support (except Scotland-funded students)
Effective date: 31 August of relevant academic year
| % of total withdrawal notifications | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domicile | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
| England | 88% | 89% | 89% | 90% |
| Wales | 5% | 5% | 5% | 6% |
| Northern Ireland | 4% | 3% | 2% | 3% |
| EU (outside UK)* | 3% | 3% | 3% | 1% |
| Total | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
Note:
- *EU (outside UK) are funded by either England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
- Figures include only full-time and part-time undergraduate students (not postgraduate).
- Constituent parts may not add to totals due to rounding.
- Due to irregularities noted, such as late course start dates AY 2020/21, the year-on-year figures may not be comparable.
Figure 3: % Change of student withdrawal notifications from HEPs by domicile and academic year: 2018/19 to 2021/22
Coverage: Students domiciled in UK and EU (outside UK) domiciled receiving student support (except Scotland-funded students)
Effective date: 31 August of relevant academic year
| % Change year-on-year | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Domicile | 2018/19 to 2019/20 | 2019/20 to 2020/21 | 2020/21 to 2021/22 |
| England | – 8% | 6% | 24% |
| Wales | – 7% | 7% | 42% |
| Northern Ireland | – 24% | – 13% | 58% |
| EU (outside UK)* | 1% | 17% | – 67% |
| All domiciles | – 9% | 6% | 23% |
Note:
- *EU (outside UK) are funded by either England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
- Figures include only full-time and part-time undergraduate students (not postgraduate).
- Constituent parts may not add to totals due to rounding.
- Due to irregularities noted, such as late course start dates AY 2020/21, the year-on-year figures may not be comparable.
Figure 4: Change of student withdrawal notifications from HEPs by domicile and academic year by effective date: 2018/19 to 2021/22
Coverage: Students domiciled in UK and EU (outside UK) domiciled receiving student support (except Scotland-funded students)
Effective date: Various
% Change year-on-year
| Domicile | 2018/19 to 2019/20 | 2018/19 to 2019/20 | 2019/20 to 2020/21 | 2019/20 to 2020/21 | 2020/21 to 2021/22 | 2020/21 to 2021/22 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data effective date | 31-May | 31-Aug | 31-May | 31-Aug | 31-May | 31-Aug |
| England | – 5% | – 8% | 1% | 6% | 17% | 24% |
| Wales | – 6% | – 7% | 5% | 7% | 31% | 42% |
| Northern Ireland | – 16% | – 24% | – 9% | – 13% | 59% | 58% |
| EU (outside UK)* | 1% | 1% | – 3% | 17% | – 66% | – 67% |
| All domiciles | – 5% | – 9% | 1% | 6% | 16% | 23%** |
Note:
- *EU (outside UK) are funded by either England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
- ** Omitting the outlying academic year of AY 2020/21, due to factors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it should be noted that the increase between AY 2019/20 and AY 2021/22 was + 30% at this point of the academic year.
- Figures include only full-time and part-time undergraduate students (not postgraduate).
- Constituent parts may not add to totals due to rounding.
- Due to irregularities noted, such as late course start dates AY 2020/21, the year-on-year figures may not be comparable.
Sector Response
NUS Vice President Higher Education, Chloe Field, said:
“These figures are shocking, but not surprising given the cost of living crisis which is pushing students to the brink. We’ve warned that student dropouts could increase as university becomes less affordable, and it could get even worse this year.
“One in three students is living on £50 a month after paying rent and bills. This is a totally unacceptable situation, but instead of delivering additional support for students, the government is busy prioritising the needs of the richest in society.
“Students are telling us they can’t afford to continue their studies; they’re having to choose between feeding themselves and carrying on their education. Many can no longer afford to travel to placements, they’re holding down multiple jobs to make ends meet. Inevitably, it is the students from the poorest background who are being disproportionately affected.
“The government needs to take control of this situation by tying student support with inflation and delivering urgent maintenance grants and bursaries, otherwise student poverty will continue to grow and we’ll see even more dropouts.”
Responses