Dropping out advice please

Hi I’ll keep this short but basically I started a MH nursing degree in September and I definitely can’t see myself doing this for another 3 years let alone the rest of my life. My mental health is so bad atm I’m scheduled to see my gp after I’m out of isolation. If I decide to take a break now before Christmas for a year or so, what happens to my funding? Is it possible for me to start a different course in September? I’m really unsure and confused atm
Thank you

You should get a gift year of funding, meaning you can have 1 year like this i.e. a "false start", so if you're getting student loans you don't need to worry about that - you may have to pay a little bit back now or set up a payment plan, but it shouldn't be too much. You also need to think about accommodation if you're living in uni halls - they might have a clause that lets you out of your contract if you leave for health reasons, or you may be obliged to keep paying until you find a replacement tenant.

Your priority now should be your mental health, and I'm glad you're addressing it as an issue. If you want to start a different course in September, now would be the time to start getting a new UCAS application sorted, ready for the Jan 15th deadline. Good luck, and I hope you feel better soon

thank you for replying I appreciate it what if I decide that I don’t want to do a degree at all and want to do like an apprenticeship or something? I searched it up and it said I’d have to pay 25% of the year back since it’s only the first term which is understandable. I live at home so I don’t have to worry about accommodation thankfully! I’ll have a think about it and discuss with my parents. Thank you again !!

I dropped out after a term (well, kind of, it's a long story!), and it's no issue - I just had to pay back a slight overpayment in my maintenance loan at the time, and now my student loan repayment balance is just sat at around £4500 (gaining a little interest), and functions just like a normal student loan in that I don't need to start paying it back until I'm earning above the threshold etc. I do plan to go back and do a degree next year, but even if I didn't it would work just the same.

I dropped out after a term (well, kind of, it's a long story!), and it's no issue - I just had to pay back a slight overpayment in my maintenance loan at the time, and now my student loan repayment balance is just sat at around £4500 (gaining a little interest), and functions just like a normal student loan in that I don't need to start paying it back until I'm earning above the threshold etc. I do plan to go back and do a degree next year, but even if I didn't it would work just the same.

hey, i’m thinking of doing this rn because i hate uni but the only thing that’s stopping me is the financial side to it? was it difficult for you to pay the overpayments back to student finance?

Not at all - because I left in early January, I'd just received my second maintenance loan instalment, and the overpayment was only from that. Because I left for mental health reasons I didn't have to pay back the full instalment, but even if I did have to it would have been fine, since I'd only just received the money so it was still in my account. They sent me a letter telling me the overpayment amount and a number to call, and it was very easy to pay off over the phone. I think they're also pretty good at setting up payment plans if, for whatever reason, you can't pay it back straight away

Ohh right thank you so much! What did you do in terms of paying off your uni accommodation for the rest of the year?

Because I was leaving for health reasons they released me from my contract after paying for 1 extra month/until they found a new tenant (whichever was sooner), and I'd got a scholarship which they let me keep so I had a bit of money spare to cover that. If you're leaving out of choice it might be a bit trickier - usually you'd have to pay until you found a replacement tenant, but that probably isn't possible this year given the current lockdown, so I'm not sure what your rent liability would be.

At this point I'd recommend contacting someone at your uni, such as your tutor or a student support staff member, to discuss how you're feeling about things and get advice for your specific case. They tend to be pretty good at supporting it and can tell you exactly what the financial implications would be

Ahh I see, I'm glad it worked out for you in the end! I'm in the process of contacting the relevant people so thank you so much for the advice