Fees out of step with student finance

My wife is doing a masters, went part time from early this year. Hey course will end at the end of academic year 20/21. Her attendance and course work is weighted towards 2021, because of how much she'd done already when she went part time.

For masters the fees are paid by the student out of their student finance after received.

This academic year, student finance have put all her payments Jan 2021 - July 2021, but there university are demanding a large payment this semester. They say she must go online and set up a payment schedule or she will be sent to bad debts and taken to court or thrown off the course. They say when she sets up the schedule online then student finance will change their payment schedule, but when she goes on the uni site the payment schedule she is setting asks for payment card for a payment she has already made last acc year and for the current year says payment will be taken immediately!

She has had numerous conversations with student support but they are very patronising and will not budge and take very long time and effort to get through to also.

Is there anything she can do or will she have to leave her course if she cannot raise the money in advance of student finance?

Thanks.

Hi there, we are not able to amend the payment schedule because we don't offer any Tuition Fee Loan to postgraduate applicants, just the contribution to costs loan to help. I'd advise her to try speak with the university again and ask them to allow more time so when she receives her SFE funding, she can use it to help pay for the fee.
Thanks, Isaac

Thanks,

We have set up the fee payment schedule because the uni INSIST that once that is set up with them, sfe will definitely change their payment schedule.

You seem to be saying you will definitely not, why would they say this and why, while the loan may not technically be for fees, is there not more practical communication between uni and sfe, since in practical terms the income need is student cost including fees related?

Why might all of this academic year sfe loan be completely in jan-jul 2021? Rather than not more but just equally spread? One has not ceased to be a student irrelevant of how the course work falls.

Are you an sfe employee

Ok none of this makes any sense.

Student finance have now sent a text saying your payment is on its way, no amount. This does not match the paper schedule for 20/21, the 20/21 online schedule link leads to "sorry something went wrong"! We did not fill out any paper form of contact sfe in any way.

Now we don't know what other schedule is in order to plan and what and why and when this up coming payment is!

Further to the post above that begins "Ok none of this makes any sense."...

The payment that sfe have just made based on the recent text, is the one that their paper schedule says they should have made on 28 September and did not! £54 !!! Add I said virtually all the sfe money for 20/21 comes after Jan 2021. The electronic schedule on the site for 20/21 remains unavailable and the university is about to take £900 based on they said sfe would automatically change the schedule!

What to do!

Basically, whether or not you are confirmed to get student finance, do not take a masters unless your can already afford to pay for the fees yourself without student finance!