Follow these steps once you have decided to leave your course to avoid getting a further student finance payment.

Applies to England

1. Speak to your uni or college first

Your student finance advisor can give you advice. If you still want to leave your course early, your university will record some details, including the date you left.

Due to online learning, the date you last attended your course, doesn’t necessarily mean going to a lecture in person. It could include accessing a library, laboratory, clinic or placement. It’s important that you talk to your university about this to agree the date.

Your university send these details to notify us that you’ve withdrawn. We use these details to work out how much student finance you’re entitled to.

2. Contact us so we can stop your next student finance payment

Sometimes you will receive a Maintenance Loan payment after withdrawing. This needs to be paid back straight away. This could be because we haven’t received the notification from your university in time. To stop this from happening, you should contact us and our advisors will stop your next student finance payment.

Your Tuition Fee Loan is repaid as normal.

If you’re withdrawing from one course to transfer to another, you don’t need to contact us. Your university will let us know. We’ll reassess your application and send you a letter if your entitlement has changed. See steps 4 and 5.

What happens next

3. We’ll reassess your application

We’ll use the date your university gave us to work out how much student finance you’re entitled to. This is because you can only get funding for the time you were in study.

Example:

You received £1,200 at the start of term (£100 a week for a 12-week term).

You leave after 8 weeks, so are entitled to £800.

You need to repay £400. If you can’t repay this straight away, you can contact us to set up a payment plan.

4. We’ll send you a letter if your entitlement has changed

We’ll write to you to let you know if the amount you’re entitled to has changed.

5. Repay anything you’re not entitled to

If you’ve been paid more than you’re entitled to, you’ll usually need to repay this straight away, even if you’re earning below the repayment threshold. If you can’t afford to do this, you can contact us to set up a payment plan.

If you’ve suspended for health reasons

If your health is affecting your studies, you should speak to your Student Support Services to see if you can suspend your course. You might be able to get funding for an extra 60 days after you suspend. We can only do this if:

  • Your university has told us that you’ve suspended for health reasons

  • You send us evidence, such as a letter from your doctor

Extra funding is only awarded if you suspend your studies. It doesn’t apply if you withdraw or transfer.

Published 15 October 2021
Last updated 15 October 2021 + show all updates

  1. Adding in headers to make steps hyperlinked

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