Question About Suspending Course/Compelling Reasons

Student2015

Hello there, I had a look through this forum and have learned a lot - there's a great deal of useful information on here. I wondered if anyone could take a quick look at my situation and see if I'm thinking along the right lines?

I'm a second year student (mature student but first time at university).

I have a chronic health condition university are aware of (I've missed exams on sick days but they've always been happy for me to repeat on a different day). I am not registered as disabled, don't have any extra time or anything. Straight As for my first year. Love my uni and my course.

This Christmas I've had a bit of a family crisis. We learned that my mother has been financially abusing my adult autistic brother for over a decade. We (other siblings) were already very unhappy with his care (living at mum's) as she was frequently verbally abusive, lots of rough behaviour, but this was the last straw. My brother now lives with me, we are completely estranged from my mother - it's been incredibly difficult.

On top of this my other brother has relapsed into heroin abuse and my grandmother in law (lovely woman) died a few days before Christmas. My health condition worsens with stress and I've been sick every day for weeks. The idea of returning to uni next week is quite distressing and the majority of my exams come before mid-feb.

In an ideal world I'd like to just stop where I am and repeat my second year in September. It would give me some time to sort out all of these issues. From what I've read it looks like I might be able to suspend my course and restart in September, and perhaps even continue to get funding for this year (eg maintenance grants) if I have compelling personal reasons. Does my situation sound appropriate?

If not is it a relatively simple process to suspend a course? Do I start by contacting SFE or my uni's financial centre? Any first thoughts?

Apologies for the longer than I expected message, thank you for any replies. I will check back and reply/update if anyone is able to respond. Thank you.

the-mango

I suspended my course at exactly the same point, after Christmas of second year and I went back the following September. Your first pint of call will be with your uni/department not the financial centre, to see if you can suspend. My department were really helpful and it was very easy to do.

It's after that you'd then get in contact with the relevant financial places I'd student finance. You get one extra year of finance in case of things like this so you'll be fine with regards to funding.

Student2015

Thank you very much the-mango. Did you end up paying for your second semester? I don't think I'll attend any lectures post-christmas so will my student loan for fees just cover the first semester - and in the event I return to repeat in September will they charge a full year again or only the two-thirds I missed out on after leaving?

the-mango

Student2015 wrote: »

Thank you very much the-mango. Did you end up paying for your second semester? I don't think I'll attend any lectures post-christmas so will my student loan for fees just cover the first semester - and in the event I return to repeat in September will they charge a full year again or only the two-thirds I missed out on after leaving?

Everything was such a blur at the time but I don't think I paid for my second semester so in total for my degree I paid three years and one terms worth of fees. When you go back you get charged for the full year.