Very Late Year 1 Withdrawl or Exam Failure

Hi, my son is coming towards the end of a difficult first year at university. He has been generally struggling with the amount of work and content and is now concerned that he may fail his end of year exams which he'll be taking over the next month.

My question is around future finance. If he doesn't pass these exams or decides that he's not going to pass he may withdraw from the course altogether, so at this very late stage of the academic year, and it might be as late as June, if he does withdraw will he still be able to at a future date start a different degree at a different university and get full funding again for a new year 1 and onwards?

The calculation for funding for a new course is:
Length of new course + 1 (gift year) - previous study
So if your son applied for a 3-year course: 3 + 1 - 1 = 3 years of funding
Just a note - if your son withdraws during the third term, he will be required to repay part of his maintenance loan on a pro-rata basis. It would be best to officially withdraw from the course in August, as maintenance loans are calculated to cover students during the summer holidays.

Thanks for this that's really helpful. So just to clarify, if he drops out in June or before that even, is that still classed as the -1 year in your equation above "3 + 1 - 1 = 3" or would it be a 0 as he hasn't got to August yet i.e. "3 + 1 - 0 = 4"?