student finance situation with deferred entry

jja182005

I have been suffering from depression during my gap year since March. I am not sure if I want to start the Cambridge undergraduate term on 1st of Oct, due to their intense academic pressure. My student loan has been approved. In the meantime, my employer has offered me a fully funded degree apprenticeship beginning this Sept, which allows me to work as an apprentice on the job and receive online training towards a bachelor's degree at Exeter university after two years' studies. This works out a lot cheaper and a lot less stressful than the 3 year undergraduate program at Cambridge, but it does mean I have to live at home and miss out the uni life. I am not sure not to do.

My questions are

1. If within 2-3 weeks of starting the term with Cambridge, I find it too much to cope and I need to ask to take another year off, will I still have to pay the entire year's tuition fee through student finance? Will Cambridge allow me to take another gap year off without paying any tuition if I have done 2 or 3 weeks' studies?

2.Do I need to apply for student finance again next year if I defer my entry again until Oct next year?

What would you do in this situation?

Many thanks.

Reply 1

Leah SLC

Official Rep

Hi there. I'm sorry to hear about your current circumstances. We don't decide if the university would let you do this without charging the Tuition Fees, this would be up to them. Typically if you attend at any point during the term you would be liable for Tuition. It would be something best discussed with the university.

If the university tell us you are registered and attending and you decided to leave at any point during term 1, even if only a short period, you would be liable for 25% of the Tuition Fees.

Any Maintenance Loan you are paid out would be reassessed based on your date of last attendance and an overpayment may occur due to this.

If you decide to return in the next Academic Year, we would need a new applicaiton.

Please note, if the university confirm you are attending at any point, this would be counted as 1 year of study from a student finance perspective. So, if you decided to return, you would lose your additional year we give for any repeats, unless you can provide us with evidence of Compelling Personal Reasons.

More information on this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/going-back-to-uni-or-repeating-a-year

Thanks, Leah.