tuition fees refused!!

hey my names ollie, came across your thread after trying to find someone in a similar situation to myself, having literally just received notification that student finance would not be paying my tuition fees for this year!
im sure like many i was fobbed off over the phone by a less than helpful advisor and told to go through the appeal procedure!
to say that this bombshell has come at the 11th hour would be a bit of an understatement as i already enrolled on 21st of September!
Their reasoning being that I have already received 2 lots of funding due to starting 2 separate courses previously before, one in 03/04 and again in 05/06, (this is what i have been told by an advisor but on my entitlement form it actually says " the tuition fee amount your university or college has requested is less than the amount you told us on your application, for this reason we have changed the tuition fee amount above" to £0.00 ?
first of all how can the fees be less than what i requested as i know for a fact they are £3290, and the also both times i have only received the 1st 2 maintenance payments and to the best of my knowledge NO tuition fees have ever been paid to either institution as i terminated the 1st course before January and for the 2nd course the fees were privately funded anyway!, plus my student finance account only shows the amount outstanding for those payments! which totals under 4000.
Also i am now 27 and therefore should be classed as an independent student and would have thought i was eligible to be assessed, based on my income for a maintenance grant?
apparently not!
they have awarded me a maintenance LOAN of £6643 for this academic year and thats it!
now maybe im wrong but i was under the impression that each student was entitled to 3 years + 1 ?
Obviously as i have already "false started" twice before (gained no qualifications) i can see that i present somewhat of a risk to them and i guess they want to see if im serious about studying this time but as its technically money i will still need to payback myself and to inform me at such a late stage that i would not be funded for this year, is surely ridiculous!! ESPECIALLY due to being told, over the phone on the 27th of september by a finance advisor that all my funding was in place for THIS year,(just waiting to see my original passport) but to be aware that due to me already owing money it "may" affect my final years tuition fees.
I think i`ve got good grounds to appeal and hopefully monday i`ll get to actually speak to someone at student finance with some knowledge and authority on the matter, but just wondered if anyone else is or has been in a similar situation and what the outcome was?
thanks.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1

JDI

Bastards

Reply 2

modgepodge

Yes you are entitled to the length of course + 1 year, so that would be 4 years for you. But you've already had 2 years worth of false starts, so will only get 2 years funding, so you have to fund the first year yourself. I imagine if you dropped out before January you were probably still liable for some fees - the uni won't just let you do a term for free. At my uni if you drop out after the first 4 weeks you owe the full amount. And I'm guessing the 2nd time, you didn't get a tuition fee loan but did get a maintenance loan? Which counts as ur 2nd year of finance.

If you are 27 you will be assessed as independent, but it's irrelevant to the case of only getting 4 years funding. The next 2 years when you can get funding you will get the full amount i think.

I'm not 100% sure about this, but this is what i've gathered from reading other posts on here.

Reply 3

TheBrightShadow

modgepodge

yeah this sounds accurate as i transferred uni and paid the first year on my own (and they explained this to me that i would get my final years funded only)

Reply 4

ollie_dunford

hi, thanks for the responses. i am aware that this is standard procedure for all students that have false started or transferred uni`s etc. i am not disputing that. however my argument is that to be informed at such a late stage i.e after enrolling! despite numerous conversations with various "advisor's" over the last few months and contrary to what i was told by an advisor less than a week ago that ALL funding was in place for this year. it is simply unacceptable for them to take this decision not to fund my fees for this year!
surely i have a case that a more rational approach would be to at least allow me to come up with the funds my self for either the 2nd year or final years tuition or that my overall maintenance loan entitlement (bearing in mind the maintenance loan is the only payment student finance have ever paid out in my case) for future years should be decreased accordingly?
private funding for this year just simply is not an option for me and at 27 i don't have another year to simply defer and start next autumn!
hopefully after what will be a rather stern phone call to student finance tomorrow i shall know a bit more about where i stand and will update.

Sometimes you just have to laugh at a system that will repeatedly finance the lifestyles of lazy uneducated benefit scroungers yet stick 2 fingers up at an honest hard working, tax paying individual that's just trying to make a better life for themselves! :rolleyes:

peace

Reply 5

RNBen

It is not as simple as term of study + 1 for the amount of loan you get.

Reply 6

modgepodge

ollie_dunford

peace

I understand it must be frustrating for you, esp to find out at such a late stage. However unfortunately with SF rules are rules and I don't expect you will be successful. Unfortunately I have a feeling it probably says somewhere in the Ts & Cs that you sign about repeating years etc etc, so had you read the small print you'd have found out earlier (I'm not surprised you didn't, I never read them in that much detail).

Reply 7

Taiko

Telephone advisors are not assessors. They therefore do not have the authority to give you an answer on your entitlement.

You're ineligible for fee support and a maintenance grant udner Regulation 22 of The Education(Student Support) Regulations 2009. Bits on previous study are covered in the T&C's, and the information is freely available if you looked through the forums here.

Reply 8

ollie_dunford

hi there thanks for taking the time to get back to me, i suppose in many ways it is my naivety that has got me into this situation but there really is a lack of useful information on the official .gov website and all through the application procedure! however over the weekend one thing did catch my eye and im keeping everything crossed that this is actually all down to a clerical error. sorry i couldnt post the actual gif but my notification of entitlement breakdown reads as this...

Tuition Fees.

Tuition fee amount: £0.00
Tuition fee loan to be paid to
your university or college £0.00

then under the maintenance breakdown bit it reads

The tuition fee your university has given us for your course is less than the amount you told us on your application. For this reason we have changed the tuition fee amount above.

now i dont want to get my hopes up but the language of this decision seems to indicate that the tuition fee amount has been entered as £0.00 and therefore my tuition fee loan has been adjusted accordingly
also to £0.00 !!

would appreciate anyone who`s still awake just to give that a read over and let me know what you reckon?

p.s obviously i applied for maximum tuition fee £3290 and i know that my course is definitely £3290