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Finance advice for students who are repeating modules

After the disruption of the last 18 months, some students will be returning to study having taken time out from their course or may be repeating modules from last academic year. This is perfectly normal, but there some financial implications which you need to be aware of.

What happens if you’re repeating the whole year?

• You are still eligible for a Maintenance Loan if you have to repeat all or part of an academic year, even if you’ve repeated a year of your course previously. This also applies to any supplementary  grants – such as the Parents’ Learning Allowance, Childcare Grant and Disabled Students’ Allowances.
• You are automatically entitled to a Tuition Fee Loan for a repeat year if needed, but you can only have this automatic allocation once. This means that if you have already repeated a year or studied on a previous course for a year, you need to ask Student Finance to use their discretion to award you a further additional year of Tuition Fee Loan if fees are due.
• This appeal process is called requesting ‘compelling personal reasons’ and is very similar to ‘mitigating circumstances’ – for example pregnancy, illness, disability or traumatic personal events. You need to present a case to  Student Finance that you had strong reasons for having to repeat and you need evidence to support your case. We can help you with this.

What happens if you’re repeating part of the year?

• The university will record you as being a part-time student enrolled on a full time course. This can be confusing, as you may only be studying 1 or 2 modules, but nevertheless you are still treated as a full-time student for the purposes of Council Tax, Student Finance and any DWP Benefits you may be eligible to receive. You can therefore continue to apply for full time funding as you did previously as long as you are repeating with attendance.
• The exception to this would be if you have transferred to a part time course in which case everything changes and you should contact us for more advice.

Very important information for both scenarios:

If you have already applied for 2021/2022 funding, your student finance record needs to be amended. The university’s Academic Registry department will tell Student Finance that your course year has changed but this can take a few weeks to process, so please don’t panic.

Problems with enrolling?

There could be a number of different reasons which may be affecting your enrolment, especially if you have had a very recent exam board decision. We advise you to contact the enrolment helpline 01273 644777 in the first instance.

If you need any more help or advice about this or you have a different  money question, please contact us.

Have a great year!

Student Advice Service