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Dropping out of uni - will they take my loan back?

Hi everyone!I've decided during my Christmas break on my second year of uni, to drop out. It's a long story as to why but basically, myself & my flat mates from my previous year accumulated a lot of debt and I was forced to have to pay it all (£1000) and had to borrow £500 from family therefore I couldnt travel to uni, missed all of my first term and next month I have to pay my family back leaving me with no travel money again.I am due to start my second term tomorrow (and receive my loan) and I am going in to make an appointment with student services to discuss dropping out. My question is, once I receive my maintenance loan & grant, will student finance take that money straight back or will it just be added to the money I owe when I start my repayments? As obviously the money is for students and I will not be studying but I private let and still have rent and bills to pay and need food! I've been applying for jobs but no luck as yet and obviously I'm worried that the loan will be taken out and I'll be left homeless. Thanks in advance
Reply 1
Avatar for Klix88
Klix88
17
Original post by Becciilouisex
My question is, once I receive my maintenance loan & grant, will student finance take that money straight back or will it just be added to the money I owe when I start my repayments?

You will have to repay the instalment due for this term, immediately and in full. You would still have to repay last term's, but that would come out of your wages in future.

If you've had a uni bursary, you may be expected yo repay that in full as well. Each uni can set its own terms & conditions.

If you've really missed all of the first term, I'm surprised that the uni hasn't been talking to you about withdrawing anyway.
Reply 2
Avatar for Klix88
Klix88
17
Original post by Becciilouisex
I couldnt travel to uni, missed all of my first term


Just to add - how did you get Student Finance anyway? A uni won't send the trigger for SF to pay you, unless you physically turn up at the start of the academic year for enrolment. If you weren't able to get to uni at all for the entire first term this academic year, there's no way you could have enrolled, and that's the only way you'd get any SF.

Sounds like your uni stuffed up majorly. If SF decide that you should never have had SF payments in the first place, then they're going to demand all of it back from September onwards, in full, immediately.

Also, bear in mind that if you leave during your second year, you won't have enough SF entitlement left to do a new degree from scratch in future. You'd have to fund the first year yourself - including the tuition fees. SF would only kick back in for the second and third years. Unless you think you'll find yourself unexpectedly wealthy in future, you need to think very carefully about leaving uni now. Finishing your current course is likely to be your only chance at getting a degree.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Klix88
Just to add - how did you get Student Finance anyway? A uni won't send the trigger for SF to pay you, unless you physically turn up at the start of the academic year for enrolment. If you weren't able to get to uni at all for the entire first term this academic year, there's no way you could have enrolled, and that's the only way you'd get any SF.

Sounds like your uni stuffed up majorly. If SF decide that you should never have had SF payments in the first place, then they're going to demand all of it back from September onwards, in full, immediately.

Also, bear in mind that if you leave during your second year, you won't have enough SF entitlement left to do a new degree from scratch in future. You'd have to fund the first year yourself - including the tuition fees. SF would only kick back in for the second and third years. Unless you think you'll find yourself unexpectedly wealthy in future, you need to think very carefully about leaving uni now. Finishing your current course is likely to be your only chance at getting a degree.


Basically what happened was, I attended for 3 weeks, enrolled and what not and then in what would have been my fourth week of term I had to make the payment for the debt.

I emailed the university immediately about the situation and they said due to it being exceptional circumstances, I would be able to continue on my course without attending for the first term. If you generally just don't turn up you will be kicked out.

This is my dilemma I do want my degree it's just that finances are a real problem for me and obviously keeping a roof over my head and food on my table has to be top of my priority.

I'm going to speak to student services today and see if they can advise me on my best course of action. Hopefully anything I have to pay back to SF can be done so in instalments and then I won't have a problem.

Thanks for the help x
Original post by Klix88
Just to add - how did you get Student Finance anyway? A uni won't send the trigger for SF to pay you, unless you physically turn up at the start of the academic year for enrolment. If you weren't able to get to uni at all for the entire first term this academic year, there's no way you could have enrolled, and that's the only way you'd get any SF.

Sounds like your uni stuffed up majorly. If SF decide that you should never have had SF payments in the first place, then they're going to demand all of it back from September onwards, in full, immediately.

Also, bear in mind that if you leave during your second year, you won't have enough SF entitlement left to do a new degree from scratch in future. You'd have to fund the first year yourself - including the tuition fees. SF would only kick back in for the second and third years. Unless you think you'll find yourself unexpectedly wealthy in future, you need to think very carefully about leaving uni now. Finishing your current course is likely to be your only chance at getting a degree.


I attend for 3 weeks and so enrolled and attended for a while and hen my fourth week of uni was when I had to pay the debt. I emailed the uni to explain and because of exceptional circumstances they allowed me to continue on the course without attending for the first term.

I would like to continue on my degree but obviously I am really behind and finances are a real problem with rent and food being a priority of course. Hopefully anything that needs to be paid back to SF can be done via instalments and then their wont be a problem.

I'm going to speak to student support today and see if they can advise me on the best course of action.

Thanks for he help x
Reply 5
Avatar for Klix88
Klix88
17
Original post by Becciilouisex
I attend for 3 weeks and so enrolled and attended for a while


So when you said:
Original post by Becciilouisex
I couldnt travel to uni, missed all of my first term

...that wasn't true.

Nobody can give you useful advice unless you give accurate information on what's happened. Exaggeration isn't going to help, and the difference between the info in your first post and subsequent info, could lead to significantly different outcomes.

Advice from Student Support where you are, must be your best bet at this point. Just make sure you give them accurate information or you could end up being badly advised and landing in a bigger hole than you are already.

Good luck.
Reply 6
Avatar for Klix88
Klix88
17
Just a thought - if your family realised that making you repay the debt to them next month would probably mean that you'll never get a degree, would they consider deferring the repayment?
Original post by Klix88
So when you said:

...that wasn't true.

Nobody can give you useful advice unless you give accurate information on what's happened. Exaggeration isn't going to help, and the difference between the info in your first post and subsequent info, could lead to significantly different outcomes.

Advice from Student Support where you are, must be your best bet at this point. Just make sure you give them accurate information or you could end up being badly advised and landing in a bigger hole than you are already.

Good luck.


It's really not much of an exaggeration. There are 10 weeks in my term and I attended 3 with the first 2 weeks being more of a case of breaking the ice and module introductions than actual studying and during my second week I was moving into my accommodation and so missed a few days of that week too and so I was present for 1 week of actual studying.

Student support are aware of my situation last term so they should hopefully be able to advise me best (here's hoping!) but they do tend to be quite helpful.

& they are aware of my situation but my family are not in a good financial situation themselves. They don't want me to be in a dire situation but I am in a slightly more flexible position than them in the way that I have more options where as they dont. They couldn't really afford to lend me the money in the first place but obviously the last thing we wanted was the debt collector on the doorstep!
Reply 8
Avatar for 24rose5
24rose5
2
Hi

I am sorry you are in this situation. You have enrolled for your second year, so you will receive all your SFE funding for this year. Your tuition fees has been paid and will continue to be paid. Your maintenance loan and grant has also been paid and will continue to be paid even if you stop going to uni. However, you should go back next year for your second year again and third year. This time you have to pass and finish course as you have just used up your gift year.

Please do not panic, you will be just fine.

Hope this helps.
Original post by 24rose5
Hi

I am sorry you are in this situation. You have enrolled for your second year, so you will receive all your SFE funding for this year. Your tuition fees has been paid and will continue to be paid. Your maintenance loan and grant has also been paid and will continue to be paid even if you stop going to uni. However, you should go back next year for your second year again and third year. This time you have to pass and finish course as you have just used up your gift year.

Please do not panic, you will be just fine.

Hope this helps.


Thank you so much!
I've spoken to student support at my uni and they said there is a hardship fund but it's dependent on attendance (which seems a bit silly in my situation as the only reason I didn't attend was due to lack of finance and they could have told me about the hardship loan in my first term!). So I can apply for this but I may not get it.

If I drop out I believe I can pay in instalments so I should be fine but I'll have to talk to student finance about that next week and explain my situation to them.

Thank you so much for your help! :smile:
Hi so I went to uni for 2 years and then after my second year retook the year as I failed some modules, dropping out at the start of January, so my second semester. I had an overpayment for grant and now am paying back through direct debits monthly I've just got a place at holloway and was wondering if student finance would fund me for my academic year also I spoke to student fees at the uni and they said you can only pay in two half installments, though I spoke to an advisor and they told me if I want to set up a payment plan to email. When I emailed they said the same thing on the website about paying 50% of fees on the start of year and the other half in January.Please help me as I want to know my options I really want to study this year and have been accepted to a course I'm really excited to learn about I would be able to pay monthly or quarterly for my tuition also I applied for student accommodation too so my maintenance loan will mostly go to that.
Reply 11
Avatar for cazdnd
cazdnd
1
so I am in my first year of uni and I have had to defer until next year due to injury, will I still be paid my student finance for this year?
I'm in my first year of a three years undergrad course but i've just been taken off the course because i didn't pass an assignment.What happens to the student loan and maintainance grant i've already received?
I was on nursing degree but about two weeks ago i was discontinued from the programme as i failed one of the assignments.
But i'm worried that student finance may require reibursement of tuition fees loan and maintainance loan which i can't afford to pay back right now.
Reply 14
Avatar for Ewee
Ewee
1
Can you tell me what happened after? Did they take the money back?
Original post by Ewee
Can you tell me what happened after? Did they take the money back?


I dropped out in March after 6 months and they instructed me to pay back an overpayment straight away. It's determined by the number of weeks remaining in that term that you'd no longer be attending but have taken out a loan for. I had £7 left from my loan afterwards, after having saved most of my loan the whole time, only spending money on my accommodation really. You may have to use some of your own money to pay back an overpayment because I'm one of the minority who wasn't spending theirs on clubbing and drinking. I had saved £1000 of my loan before dropping out and they clawed that back instantly.

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