Withdrawing from university HELP

annie-c

sugarshakes wrote: »

Hi Annie,

The letter says;

"Our records suggest that you have stopped attending the university following your enrolment for the 2008/9 academic year. Furthermore, at the time of writing we have received no formal notification from you either requesting permission to suspend your studies or withdraw from your course.

The universities academic reulations (section C1) state that 'if the academic registar determines to his or her satisfaction that a student is not attending tuition and has no valid reason for not attending, the students status as a a student shall be terminated'. On this basis the university is terminating your status as a student and withdrawing you from your course with effect from 13/Nov/2008

Whist you remain formally liable under the university's academic regulations for the full year's tuition fee, we have revised the fee due in light of your non attendance. We have decided that no further fee is required.

If you come under the goverment's student support arrangements we will be notifying your local authoiry of your withdrawal.

If you have been attending, and for some reason this has not been reflected in the university's records, the we will need a confirmation from your course leader that you have been attending. This should be sent to the address below marked for my attention or by email to [EMAIL="enrolment@**********.ac.uk"]enrolment@**********.ac.uk[/EMAIL]
and should be received no later that 31st January 2009

Similary if you have been attending, it would help if you contacted your UG/PG center to discuss any issues you may have in respect of the above.

Should you be withdrawn at this point, this does not prevent you from apply to, and studying at the university in the future. Should you wish to study in the future then you need to re-apply through our admissions office. You should quote the student number shown n this letter in any application.

Yours sincerely,
Git.

That's the entire letter. It's dated the 21st Jan 09 but I only recieved it this morning

Does that help???

Thanks this is helpful. Universities withdraw students who dont attend between registration and November because November is a cut off date for the to submit data to their funding body. Early withdrawals are less messy on the system and so they have strict ules.

If you want to go back then you have to get in touch with your course tutors straight away to see if this is possble. Have you handed any work in this academic year at all, ie since September? If so then you may have a case for retaining your place.

In any case, did you pass any modules/exams/coursework in your previous two years. If so you will be entitled to a transcript of your results which may be useful to gain a lower qualification or be put towards a diffeent qualification in future.

You need to bite the bullet and go in to your department. Be brave and try to set aside how you feel about them or what they may be thining of you. Just go in and make an appointment.

In the meantime, you should send a reply to the Academic Registrar to note that you have received the letter and would like to take the opportunity to speak to someone about your situation.

I agree with the earlier poster who said your Uni won't want to let you go if they can retain you (and retain their fees and funding). But you need to act very quickly, so take some deep breaths and think about what you will do tomorrow to start to sort this out.

Taiko

Think it has already been covered, but if you did receive any grants, you will have to pay those back on a pro-rata basis. Going from the letter, you'd be entitled to keep grant for the period to 13th November.

These do usually need to be repaid immeadiately I'm afraid, but I have heard of Glasgow doing it in installments or deducting from future payments.

Another note, and this unfortunately is liable to make you feel worse but it's better than telling you what you want to hear, is that if you change courses your support is likely to be restricted. Entitlement is the duration of the new course plus one year, less any academic years (full or part) spent in higher education. So if you went on a 4 year course, your entitlement for it would be (4+1) - 3 = 2 years full support. Any entitlement is allocated from the final year of the new course working backwards, and any years where entitlement cannot be allocated means you wouldn't get help with your tuition fees.

bitsandpieces

You really should speak to a sympathetic tutor - apologise for not attending and not telling them what was going on, and tell them about why you didn't feel able to attend (e.g. if you felt out of your depth). Hopefully, they will be able to help you work out what your options are now - or to tell you who to contact to ask about this. They are likely to be sympathetic - it's sad to see someone drop out if you've know them for a couple of years - but if you feel nervous about speaking to someone, e-mail: the worst likely response is you might get back a snappy e-mail in reply. It might seem scary now, but how you move on from this could affect your future career options etc. - so it is worth biting the bullet, and checking out the options now.

In terms of careers advice, universities often provide free career advice to former students - worth asking?

One more thought - if you are looking for something relatively recession-proof to do after sorting things out with your Uni, volunteering might be an option. E.g. CSV can provide accommodation and a living allowance, along with giving you something useful to do which looks good on a CV. Of course, this might not be for you...

surfsister

why has it take you so long to respond to the letter if it was with effect from 13/Nov/2008? It's now 5 weeks later?

If any probs come up and you get anything like this you need to reply straight away, I would say 5 weeks is far too long to get much sympathy.

I know our uni warns several times before they withdraw someone but if they don't get any response they assume the student is not interested.

Have you handed in any work recently or attended any lectures at all? If so i would go to see the student union as they can be quite militant on a student's behalf.

Why haven't you attended lectures? if you have a good reason eg sickness or ill health of a love one you may have a case to make but I fear it is now too late. Sorry.

What degree was it? It seems such a waste to throw it all up after 3 years work.

annie-c

How are you getting on sugarshakes? It's 29th today so you still have a couple of days before the deadline on your letter. Have you done anything yet? Can we help some more?

Fire_Fox

Has the Uni not tried to contact you prior to this letter to discuss your non-attendance? This letter does not sound like it should be the first notification.

From where I am sitting you could claim extenuating circumstances, which means you may be able to transfer or defer your studies. If you have family stuff going on which is affecting you financially, and you are finding the course stressful enough to be avoiding the situation ...

Keep posting and keep your chin up.
:A