Advice needed after returned to university after long covid, charged fees again
In 2021 I started a two year Masters course at a English university. Everything was fine until I started a new work position in the Autumn of 2022 and came down with Covid. Come the Spring and I still hadn't fully recovered, so I saw my GP, spoke to the university and requested a course deferment/suspension.
A few emails and upload of my GPs letter later, I was granted the deferment until September 2024. When this was granted, the most official response I received was an email from the Programme Support Officer at the time, who ended his email with this last sentence: ). "Please note that you will be required to pay for these two units", which were the two units I had left.
Not being 100% due to the long covid, I didn't pay much attention and went on with life. Come September 2024, I write to the uni admin to let them know that I am coming back. Ok, so that's sorted. I do the first course, turn in my paper all good. In February, I start making arrangements to begin my final paper, contact my supervisor, etc. Everything is going great and then on 27 February, I receive an email stating that I have a past due tuition bill of £3333.33 and that it must be paid before 14 April.
I contact admin, and they remind me of the email that said I would be required to pay for these two units. To be fair, I had forgotten about this, and I admitted this, but I queried the amount. They said it was for the two units, which are 20 and 60 credits.
I paid for these units already when I paid for the course which was £7,500. An charge now of £3333.33 consists of a 44.4% extra charge for something I've already paid for.
At no point when deferring my course did they let me know what the costs would be on my return. Only five and half months after restarting it did they suddenly send me a past due bill. Also, is it normal for a university to charge student who had to defer their course due to a medical reason to again for units?
Am I in the wrong here? Is the university legally correct but morally wrong? Is there anything I can do legally? Thank you for reading this!
A few emails and upload of my GPs letter later, I was granted the deferment until September 2024. When this was granted, the most official response I received was an email from the Programme Support Officer at the time, who ended his email with this last sentence: ). "Please note that you will be required to pay for these two units", which were the two units I had left.
Not being 100% due to the long covid, I didn't pay much attention and went on with life. Come September 2024, I write to the uni admin to let them know that I am coming back. Ok, so that's sorted. I do the first course, turn in my paper all good. In February, I start making arrangements to begin my final paper, contact my supervisor, etc. Everything is going great and then on 27 February, I receive an email stating that I have a past due tuition bill of £3333.33 and that it must be paid before 14 April.
I contact admin, and they remind me of the email that said I would be required to pay for these two units. To be fair, I had forgotten about this, and I admitted this, but I queried the amount. They said it was for the two units, which are 20 and 60 credits.
I paid for these units already when I paid for the course which was £7,500. An charge now of £3333.33 consists of a 44.4% extra charge for something I've already paid for.
At no point when deferring my course did they let me know what the costs would be on my return. Only five and half months after restarting it did they suddenly send me a past due bill. Also, is it normal for a university to charge student who had to defer their course due to a medical reason to again for units?
Am I in the wrong here? Is the university legally correct but morally wrong? Is there anything I can do legally? Thank you for reading this!
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