How repeat study impacts student funding

Most students will now be receiving news of the outcome of exam boards  and for some this will mean having to resubmit work, resit exams and/or retake modules across next academic year.

In this blog we will explain how different scenarios will impact your funding for next year.

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 accessing 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’ or ‘additional considerations’ – 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 all aspects of this.

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

• If you are a full time student having to repeat part f 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 2022/2023 funding, your student finance record needs to be amended. You can change your application online and the university’s Academic Registry department will also tell Student Finance that your course year has changed but this can take a few weeks to process, so please don’t panic.

If you need any more help or advice about this or you have a different  money question, please contact us. We are here all year round and work right across the summer, so don’t hesitate to get in touch with any funding or money question.

Enjoy the summer!

Student Advice Service