Sandwich courses and student finance

My 17yo son is looking at University courses for next year. He will be the first from our household to go and I'm struggling to understand some of it.

Something being looked at is some sandwich courses. How does student finance work for the year you are on a work placement? I know you are paid by your employer, so am guessing you don't take the maintenance loan. What happens about the tuition fees, do you still pay them?

I understand you can have up to 4 years of student finance. Some of our peers children have had all 4 years, either because they've done a PGCE on top of a degree, or because they changed their degree to another course after the first year.

I am wondering if tuition fees are paid during the work placement year, would this count as 4 years of student finance and cause a problem if for whatever reason he wanted/needed to do an additional year of study?

Comments

  • silvercar
    silvercar Posts: 46,865
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    PGCE funding is separate to undergraduate funding.

    Generally, you are funded for the length of your course plus one extra year if you need it. So it allows for resitting a year or dropping out and starting another course etc.

    Sandwich year courses often have a reduced tuition fee for the year in industry, to pay for the supervision element of the year. Usually sandwich years are the 3rd year of a 4 year course, so you would know by that point if the course was for you.
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  • Spendless
    Spendless Posts: 24,110
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    silvercar wrote: »
    PGCE funding is separate to undergraduate funding.

    Generally, you are funded for the length of your course plus one extra year if you need it. So it allows for resitting a year or dropping out and starting another course etc.

    Sandwich year courses often have a reduced tuition fee for the year in industry, to pay for the supervision element of the year. Usually sandwich years are the 3rd year of a 4 year course, so you would know by that point if the course was for you.
    Yes, thank you. What would happen if you decided to take a 4yr (sandwich) course and at the end of yr1 at Uni, you think you are on the wrong course, so you change to a different 4yr sandwich course. That would mean 4 years of the degree plus a sandwich year. How does funding work then?
  • Ed-1
    Ed-1 Posts: 3,867
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    Spendless wrote: »
    Yes, thank you. What would happen if you decided to take a 4yr (sandwich) course and at the end of yr1 at Uni, you think you are on the wrong course, so you change to a different 4yr sandwich course. That would mean 4 years of the degree plus a sandwich year. How does funding work then?

    There is no 4 year limit on funding. There are different eligibility criteria depending on previous study and there are many exceptions.

    Part-time fee and maintenance loans in STEM subjects for second degrees for example have been announced as intended for implementation in 2018/19.
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