abandoned uni course and fees, can anyone advise please?

sunjue100

Hi just joined the forum and apologies in advance for teh long post
My daughter started a degree course 3 years ago but left it after about 5-6 weeks. She had applied for finance for fees but as she abandoned the course she didn't receive/pay the fees.

The following September she started a 4 year primary teaching course at another uni which she loves , applied for the fees/loans etc no problem and again for this academic year. She has just succesfully completed her second year and applied for funding for her third year. She got a call from the uni to say she may not get funding as she needs to supply a doctors letter for 3 years ago saying that she finished the course for sigificant medical reasons, which she didn't, she chose the wrong course/uni and told them this at the time.

She has explained all of this and they are insistent that she has to write to the local authority !! We are quite confused by not only the issue but that it has taken 3 years to query her application .

Has anyone been in this situation and if so can you advise please

stitch26

Hi welcome to the forum.

Although I have not been in this situation myself I would imagine that contacting student finance would be the best course as they will have records of any payments made. If your daughter received no financial assistance for her first course then there should be, in my experience, no reason for problems with her third year funding.

Hope that helps, although there are a few experts on here who have more experience than me, so I may be wrong.

HopeAndDriftWood

I believe that student finance count part years as full years, so to their knowledge, she'll have had 3 years funding.
The formula is: course length + 1 minus any previous study, which for your daughter would be 4 + 1 - 1 = 4. So she should still be okay...The other thing that goes in your favour is that typically, if they won't fund all the years, they make the student pay the first ones and they pay the later ones. So it does look like they accepted her reasons.

If she's dealt with by the LEA, then she will need to write to them, or try to talk to them on the phone. Explain why she left, and try to include some evidence that she is sticking to this course and achieving good grades, but I wouldn't mention that she didn't receive fees, as even if she didn't get her loans/grants, I believe the uni will still have been paid the years tuition.

The uni tend to be quite confusing, and your local LEA should be better. Much better then student finance, who often take forever to get back to you! I'd move fast, though, as they are already getting behind with applications and there isn't long left now until clearing students will fill the system more.

Good luck!