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Can't return to study - Finance (Long Story)

Basically..

I started a course late in 2012, official records shown I didn't enroll until the 4th October (2 weeks after the start of the course). It was a last minute decision after attending an open day that September.
At that open day, I spoke to 2 members of the finance department who assured me that even though I had studied previously (Part completed BSc) I should still be eligible for funding through student finance Wales.
Because of this, I was late applying to student finance Wales, and therefore didn't get a response from them until the beginning of December, at which point I'd been attending the University for 2 months assuming that the finance side of things was fine as I had no other way of checking..
So beginning of December, disaster strikes and I find out that I'm not eligible for funding. I try to query it but no such luck.
At this point, through no fault of my own, I have no choice but to withdraw from the course as I have no way of funding it myself. I thought that was the end of it..
So it's August/September 2014, I'm in a new job of which my employer has offered to send me back to University to finish my part-completed BSc from previous years. Next thing you know, I have a place confirmed on the course but there is an issue.. The finance department at the university are stating that as I withdrew, I am eligible to pay 25% of the fees (£1875). I explained my situation and my story but they aren't one bit interested, even the student money advice team don't want to know..
I have explained that the only way I could afford to pay this back is £5 per month (seriously).
Although they will agree to this, it still means I cannot attend as there is still outstanding debt on my record.. It's at this point I feel totally helpless, I have no idea what to do next, I feel so embarrassed after explaining so much of this to my employer.. I do not know what to do..

If anyone could give me any advice it would be much appreciated, I have been losing so much sleep over this as I've never had any sort of debt my entire life and this seems like it is never going to go away!

Thanks in advance,
Matt

Reply 1

balotelli12

Don't do anything in future without knowing exactly what your rights and responsibilities are.

Reply 2

AdamX1

There's not much you can do about it. My brother was stuck in a similar predicament and just accepted that he had to pay off the debt before studying at his chosen university.

Just keep your head up. You could possibly ask your employer for a temporary loan or borrow from family. There might be some other financial options for you like student loans or something. Don't stress too much over it, just do what you have to do to progress.