tuition fee resitting first year twice.

so due to personal reasons i withdrew from my resit of first year, however this was in the middle of my studies. apparently sfe will only fund 4 total years so i will not get any tuition fee if i resit this september. However my third tuition fee loan payment was cancelled so the total tuition fee paid to my uni was only £4625. if i apply for tuition fees will i get 9k - the 4625 or will i just get none at all? thanks

Reply 1

Graeme SFE

Official Rep

Original post by danteman

Hi there,

Is this the first time you've had to repeat a year of study?

In total, how many years of previous study do you have?

Thanks, Graeme

Reply 2

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

You get funding from SFE for full time courses equal to length of course + 1 year (the "gift" year) - number of years of prior study in HE. So it's not "four" years, it depends on the length of your course (people doing a 5 year MSci with foundation year or a medical/dental/vet med degree would have funding issues otherwise).

In your circumstance I reckon your entitlement calculation as: 3 (assuming 3 year BA/BSc standard course and will be entering 1st year again) + 1 year - 2 years (assuming you attempted 1st year twice) = 2 years of funding remaining. As SFE calculate from the end of the degree to the front, your upcoming academic year would be the one without tuition fee funding. You would usually be entitled to a maintenance loan still though.

Note that withdrawing part way through the year still counts as a full year against your entitlement (they do not pro-rata it). You would only have avoided that if you'd withdrawn at the very start of the year before SFE made any payments to your uni, before your uni's cut off for fee liability.

I would suggest reviewing your finances and seeing if you are able to make it through the year using your maintenance loan to pay tuition fees if you have enough savings to cover your living costs. You would probably need to negotiate with your uni a payment plan for the tuition fees to align with the maintenance loan disbursement dates though (this is at the discretion of the uni though).

Depending on the circumstances leading to the repeat and then withdrawal, you may be able to apply for Compelling Personal Reasons (CPR) for an additional year of funding (including tuition fee loan) - this may be relevant if your studies were disrupted by e.g. bereavement of immediate family, significant illness (including mental health conditions) etc. You'll need to gather enough evidence to support your claim though (e.g. for bereavement death certificates, for illness medical letters/reports, and supporting documentation from e.g. different types of therapist- physio, mental health or otherwise - you might have seen), and when I applied I also wrote a "covering letter" of sorts to explain the whole situation and contextualise the evidence supplied.

Also bear in mind funding for part-time courses (i.e. that are regularly offered as part-time and listed with SFE in their database as such - not full-time courses offered in part-time mode) have a separate funding calculation which does not take into account previous full time funding provided you did not earn a qualification that is greater than the one you are applying for funding for.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 3

danteman

Original post by Graeme SFE

Hi there,
Is this the first time you've had to repeat a year of study?
In total, how many years of previous study do you have?
Thanks, Graeme

hello i have so far repeated once so i have 1 year of previous study + this year that i withdrew from. i will be repeating again in september.

Reply 4

Drew SLC

Official Rep

Hi there,

If this will be the 3rd time you are studying the same year then you will need to apply for Compelling Personal Reasons to see if you can get a year of funding back for the Tuition Fee Loan. If you could not complete your course year due to a compelling personal reason, you may be able to receive an additional year of funding if you provide evidence of this. This evidence can be uploaded from your Online Account.

We can accept photocopies of the following;
-Medical evidence from a GP on headed paper
-Letter from HEP on headed paper
-Letter from Social Services on headed paper
-Letter from clergy or professional person on headed paper
-Death Certificate and/or a Birth Certificate

Where applicable, we recommend evidence;
-Is signed and dated
-Confirms the reason why you could not continue with your studies and
- When this took place

Thanks, Drew