Got to my 3rd year of Uni but didn’t finish degree - can I study again with funding?

As stated in the title, I attended uni for 3 years from 2013 studying Geography. For this I had tuition and maintenance loans, unfortunately during my 2nd year, I had a traumatic medical event which affected my studies and left with me with severe anxiety and frequent trips in and out of hospital. I attempted to turn things around in my 3rd year but my ongoing medical issues had too much of an impact and though my university granted mitigation for my circumstances, the damage was done and I couldn’t bring things back to pass my degree overall, so I ended up leaving with no degree and went into the NHS working for several years. I am now wanting to pursue a degree in Psychology which is linked with my current job and was advised I could apply through clearing to my choice as I already have my A-Levels etc. I’ve submitted my application to student finance after reading that Psychology is on the list of exceptions for funding, however would I be able to study full time or only part time since I never actually achieved my first degree? And then what funding am I actually entitled to, just the tuition loan? Or just the maintenance loan? Or neither? Any help and advice in this would be a great help as I feel really confused about it and obviously I am now waiting to have my student finance application processed…

Thanks in advance!

Reply 1

Graeme SFE

Official Rep

8

Original post

by latr18

As stated in the title, I attended uni for 3 years from 2013 studying Geography. For this I had tuition and maintenance loans, unfortunately during my 2nd year, I had a traumatic medical event which affected my studies and left with me with severe anxiety and frequent trips in and out of hospital. I attempted to turn things around in my 3rd year but my ongoing medical issues had too much of an impact and though my university granted mitigation for my circumstances, the damage was done and I couldn’t bring things back to pass my degree overall, so I ended up leaving with no degree and went into the NHS working for several years. I am now wanting to pursue a degree in Psychology which is linked with my current job and was advised I could apply through clearing to my choice as I already have my A-Levels etc. I’ve submitted my application to student finance after reading that Psychology is on the list of exceptions for funding, however would I be able to study full time or only part time since I never actually achieved my first degree? And then what funding am I actually entitled to, just the tuition loan? Or just the maintenance loan? Or neither? Any help and advice in this would be a great help as I feel really confused about it and obviously I am now waiting to have my student finance application processed…
Thanks in advance!

Hi there,

Psychology is a part-time exception. So, if you study part-time you'll be entitled to the Tuition Fee Loan for the duration. And, so long as the course isn't distance learning, you should be entitled to a Maintenance Loan.

If you study full-time, you'll only be entitled to the Tuition Fee Loan in the final year due to your previous study. However, if you can prove you had Compelling Personal Reasons (CPR) for not completing your previous course we can potentially award you additional years of funding. Please see the link below for more details.

Thanks, Graeme

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/going-back-to-uni-or-repeating-a-year

Reply 2

latr18

OP

Original post

by Graeme SFE

Hi there,
Psychology is a part-time exception. So, if you study part-time you'll be entitled to the Tuition Fee Loan for the duration. And, so long as the course isn't distance learning, you should be entitled to a Maintenance Loan.
If you study full-time, you'll only be entitled to the Tuition Fee Loan in the final year due to your previous study. However, if you can prove you had Compelling Personal Reasons (CPR) for not completing your previous course we can potentially award you additional years of funding. Please see the link below for more details.
Thanks, Graeme
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/going-back-to-uni-or-repeating-a-year

Thank you for your reply to this and I think I now understand better, there are just two more questions I was hoping I could ask following on from this:

1.

If I apply for the extra year, is this capped at just one year only and if I am awarded this, is it applied to my 1st or 2nd year?

2.

I am pretty certain my circumstances will be sufficient enough as they are quite extreme without going into detail, and whilst I only failed to complete my final year, this began in my first year and carried on through my 2nd and 3rd, where I scraped by, so since I completely my first and second year but was effected by the ongoing personal issue, does this mean I could not apply for more than one year of additional support because I did manage to complete my first two years?

Reply 3

SFE Clare

Official Rep

8

Hi latr18,

No, it isn't capped at one year only however, as you continued on the course, it would not indicate that your studies were affected for those years as you completed them. Any CPR years awarded are carried to the first available academic year of study. If you are starting the new course from year 1, it would be that year that the CPR year would used for.

Thanks, Clare

Got to my 3rd year of Uni but didn’t finish degree - can I study again with funding?

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