Age 19, Level 3 course fees

My daughter is currently 19. She is about to finish the first year of a two-year level 3 diploma course. She'll still be 19 when the second year starts in September. Her highest qualification so far is at level 2. The college wants her to pay £3.5K in fees for next year (which wasn't mentioned at the start of year one!), but a few Google results suggest a 19 year old doesn't pay fees if they don't have an existing level 3 qualification. We're really confused. Can anyone help explain? Thank you!

Take this with a grain of salt because I'm not an expert but as far as I know, an over 19 year old student isn't eligible for fees when continuing a course started before turning 19, which seems to be the case here.

On the other hand, if she dropped out now (didn't want to pay the fees) she will still be able to get an exit award. (E.g. if the qualification was a BTEC, she could get a 90-credit diploma, if it's A-levels she could get AS levels etc.)