The Student Room Group

Student Finance won't pay my tuition fees, they want me to use the Maintenance Loan t

I know the reason why they don't to pay my tuition fees, it's because I dropped out of Uni 3 times before BUUUUT I paid my own fees all three times I dropped out, I HAVE NEVER TAKEN penny from SFE before. The reason I dropped out is because I struggled to pay for my own tuition and always ended up having to work full time, but I decided, if I'm going to finish, I need Student Finance. So my question is, I want to take this case to court, because I have never completed a degree and I have never taken a single penny from Student Finance so I don't see why they are refusing to fund me. I feel everyone has the right to an education and being refused FOR NOT REASON AT ALL is wrong! so I need to know what kind of court I need to go to and if anyone can explain or direct to links, free advice service or anything that will help me take this to court
There is no way you can "take this to court". The rules are quite clear - previous study counts even if you didn't claim student finance.

The fact is, you can claim student finance up to 9 months after the start of your academic year. So, if you were struggling financially, you could actually have changed your mind and claimed student finance. You could have claimed a Tuition Fee Loan and had your direct payments refunded by your university. You chose not to take the support that was available to you.
Reply 2
Original post by NilsonJr
I know the reason why they don't to pay my tuition fees, it's because I dropped out of Uni 3 times before BUUUUT I paid my own fees all three times I dropped out, I HAVE NEVER TAKEN penny from SFE before. The reason I dropped out is because I struggled to pay for my own tuition and always ended up having to work full time, but I decided, if I'm going to finish, I need Student Finance. So my question is, I want to take this case to court, because I have never completed a degree and I have never taken a single penny from Student Finance so I don't see why they are refusing to fund me. I feel everyone has the right to an education and being refused FOR NOT REASON AT ALL is wrong! so I need to know what kind of court I need to go to and if anyone can explain or direct to links, free advice service or anything that will help me take this to court


As above, your entitlement to Student Finance is based on the number of years you've already spent at uni, and not how much money you've had from them in the past. For the calculation, partial years are counted as complete years. The basic equasion is:

Number of years of your new uni course - Number of years of previous uni-level study + One year = Remaining years of SF entitlement

If you've had four years at uni, you will have no years of full entitlement to SF left (3-4+1=0). You can get a minimum Maintenance Loan but no Tuition Fee Loan. If you have spent three years at uni then you have one year of SF funding left (3-3+1=1). However, this would be given in your third year and you would have to fund your first and second years yourself, apart from a minimal Maintenance Loan.

You have no right of appeal unless you think that SF have done something like calculating your entitlement incorrectly. And that would involve the internal SF process, not legal action.

There is a Compelling Personal Reasons process, through which people can reclaim years of SF entitlement. However this would be something like having a serious illness, being in hospital for long periods of time during earlier attempts, having a breakdown etc. You would need written evidence from a third party such as a GP, counsellor or hospital consultant, explaining how your health/personal problems prevented you from continuing with your course. It wouldn't cover repeated problems with financial planning for self-funding.
Previous study still counts, regardless of whether you claimed from SFE or not. You may only be able to get maintenance grant and that is it. You have paid so much money and get you still dropped out.

Posted from TSR Mobile
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 4
Original post by NilsonJr
..... I dropped out of Uni 3 times before BUUUUT I paid my own fees all three times I dropped out .... The reason I dropped out is because I struggled to pay for my own tuition and always ended up having to work full time...


What sort of advance financial planning did you do, to work out whether you could survive on part-time pay? Most people can't do this even without uni tuition fees. Where there different reasons why your plan didn't work on three separate occasions?

It would be very unusual to find a part-time job which paid enough to cover tuition fees plus living expenses. Were you in a highly-paid but risky business?

Quick Reply

Latest