How on earth do students pay the money back.....

genuinegal

Hi there,
I suspended my studies for Year 1 about 4 weeks ago due to ill health, my doctor has provided a sick note to cover for the remainder of the Semester.

I hear that you have to pay back the tuition fees plus any grants that were given to the student? Ive read similar posts on here were the student has said that they have paid back the tuition fees for the remainder of the year and then re-applied for funding to re-start again the following sept (which is what im hoping to do - at the same uni).

How on earth do these students pay back the tuition fees/grants from the year they suspended?! Do they have a spare couple of grand in the bank or something?! lol

Cheers,
Emma

jd87

What? No you don't have to pay anything back right now. Next year you just apply for another year of finance, and when you do you let Student Finance England know that it is a repeat year. Everyone is allowed one repeat year. You don't pay anyone anything back in any situation until you have graduated and are earning over £15k-ish.

This answer assumes you are a Home or EU student doing a full time undergraduate degree in England as you never gave any details.

dickybeau

If you leave your course in the middle of term you lose entitlement to your loan AND grant. They need to be repaid.

Your entitlement to funds next year is reduced by any amount outstanding when you apply. SFE may be able to take account of any mitigating circumstances if you are ill and need to leave your course.

MrsManda

Leaving due to mitigating circumstances such as illness is generally treated a lot differently to just dropping out. Providing you have evidence of your illness, you went through the proper proceedures at your university for suspending your course and let Student Finance know, you are unlikely to be asked to pay anything back though you may not be entitled to the loans/grants expected in April.

student_advisor

Just to clarify, you are entitled to the funding you received for the time you have been on your course. You may be assessed as having a small overpayment for the end of the term, but you can apply for an extension of support (up to 60 days I think) so that you don't have to repay any.

Talk to the student advice/support centre for help with this.