Master's Funding

Hi there, I am currently in my third year of my bachelor's degree and I want to switch to an integrated master's programme and spend a 4th year at my university.

The problem is, I am not sure I will be able to get funding.

Basically, I did a foundation year and most of my first year at a different university, before switching to my current one. I had to apply for an extra year of funding to switch, which I was granted due to extenuating circumstances.

After this, I went to new university to do a course in physics with philosophy and I have gotten firsts every year so far, and expect to get one this year too.

If I was to switch to an integrated master's programme (which is funded identically to a bachelor's), would I get an extra year of funding on top of the 5 years I've already had?

Thank you.

Hi Jhoey,

Every student is entitled to funding for the length of their course plus one additional year, minus any previous study. This means based on what you have advised you wouldn't have enough years for finance.

Do you have Compelling Personal Reasons evidence (CPR) why you left your previous course? If you do and you have evidence, you can send this in to see if it's possible to obtain finance for this additional year. The evidence would be a letter on headed paper signed/stamped and dated from someone in profession i.e. Doctor/lecturer who knows the CPR. They must know how it affected your studies and the dates it affected you. Once received it will be up to the assessor if this will be accepted or not.

Thanks,
Claire

Hi Claire,

Thanks for the information. I do have CPR for my leaving of my previous course; my university wrote me a letter saying I left due to mental health reasons and I sent this to student finance before I started my current course. It was accepted and I so my loan for this course. Would I need to send it again to switch to the integrated masters, or would it still apply?

Thank you.

You wouldn't be able to use the same CPR for switching to this new course. You would need to have new CPR evidence and send this in with a covering letter explaining why you're sending it. The team would review and confirm if they will accept this or not.

Thanks,
Claire

Okay, I'm somewhat confused now though. My university told me that I qualify for funding and I spoke to someone from SFE on their LiveChat yesterday and they also told me I qualify for funding. Right now, you're the only person who has told me I don't, and I am a little confused why I'm getting such mixed messages.

Hi Jhoey,

I read that as if you were asked to provide CPR evidence previously, is that correct?

You are entitled to have 1 year disregarded without CPR evidence which from what you have said should have been that first year you attended before switching to the current course you are on now.

This would mean that CPR evidence wouldn't have been required previously so I am unsure why you provided this before, can you provide more information regarding this?

We provide general advice here going by the information you provide to us, however if you contacted us via Live Chat with the same question and were advised based on your account information, it is likely that the adviser you spoke to would have been able to provide more specific advice to you.

For quality purposes, can you confirm if there is a reason you have contacted here for further information after speaking to an adviser on live chat?

Thanks, Clare

Hi Jhoey,

I read that as if you were asked to provide CPR evidence previously, is that correct?

You are entitled to have 1 year disregarded without CPR evidence which from what you have said should have been that first year you attended before switching to the current course you are on now.

This would mean that CPR evidence wouldn't have been required previously so I am unsure why you provided this before, can you provide more information regarding this?

We provide general advice here going by the information you provide to us, however if you contacted us via Live Chat with the same question and were advised based on your account information, it is likely that the adviser you spoke to would have been able to provide more specific advice to you.

For quality purposes, can you confirm if there is a reason you have contacted here for further information after speaking to an adviser on live chat?

Thanks, Clare

To answer your second question, I contacted StudentRoom before I contacted SFE via LiveChat. I just wanted a second opinion since I was getting conflicting advice. The advice I received via LiveChat was that if I wanted to switch to an integrated master's course now, I would get funding, but if I wanted to repeat a year now, I wouldn't. So the person I talked to seemed to think that extending the course by a year to include an integrated master's isn't the same as repeating a year, and so there aren't special funding requirements to do it. I'm not sure though; I am still confused about how these things work.

And to answer your first question, it was a few years ago, and I can't remember who exactly advised me that I needed to send in CPR evidence. I think the logic was that I had done 2 years at one university (the foundation year and half of the first year) and thus used up my extra year, so if I wanted to switch, I would need an extra year of funding, which would require CPR evidence. Maybe a mistake was made back then? I'm not sure.

Hi there,

Sorry for the confusion here. Just to clarify, extending the course by a year like this is completely fine.

So, if you decide to transfer to the Integrated Masters version of your course you'll be entitled to funding for the final year, rest assured.

Thanks, Graeme

Okay great thanks for the information! And no worries.