What to do if you want to withdraw from your course
Follow these steps once you have decided to leave your course to avoid getting a further student finance payment.
Applies to England
If youâre thinking of leaving your course due to the current cost of living pressures. Check out our cost of living guide before making your decision. As you might find a way to get more funding which allows you to continue with your studies.
1. Speak to your uni or college first
If you want to leave your course early, you should speak to a student finance advisor at your uni or college for advice. Theyâll take some details from you, including your last day.
Your uni or college will send us these details to tell us that youâve withdrawn. We use these to work out how much student finance youâre entitled to.
2. Let us know so we can stop your next student finance payment
Sometimes youâll get a Maintenance Loan payment after withdrawing. This could be because we had already started to process your payment before your uni or college told us you had left your course. To stop this from happening, you should use Webchat in your online account to contact us and weâll stop your next student finance payment.
Any Maintenance Loan youâre paid after your withdrawal date needs to be paid back straight away.
Your Tuition Fee Loan is repaid as normal.
If youâre leaving one course to transfer to another, you donât need to contact us. Your university will let us know. Weâll reassess your application and contact you if your entitlement has changed. See steps 4 and 5.
3. Weâll reassess your application
Weâll use the date your uni or college gave us to work out how much student finance youâre entitled to. This is because you can only get funding for the time you were in study.
Example: You were paid ÂŁ1,200 at the start of term (ÂŁ100 a week for a 12-week term).
You leave after 8 weeks, so youâre entitled to ÂŁ800.
You need to repay ÂŁ400. If you canât repay this straight away, you can contact us to set up a payment plan.
4. Weâll contact you if your entitlement has changed
Weâll contact you to let you know if the amount youâre entitled to has changed.
5. Repay anything youâre not entitled to
If youâve been paid more than youâre entitled to, youâll usually need to repay this straight away, even if youâre earning below the repayment threshold. If you canât afford to do this, you can contact us to set up a payment plan.
Find out more about repaying your student finance if you leave your course.
If youâve suspended for health reasons
If your health is affecting your studies, you should speak to your Student Support Services to see if you can suspend your course. You might be able to get funding for an extra 60 days after you suspend. We can only do this if:
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your university has told us that youâve suspended for health reasons
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you send us evidence, such as a letter from your doctor
Extra funding is only awarded if you suspend your studies. It doesnât apply if you withdraw or transfer.
Additional resources and support
There are a number of organisations that you can talk to for support if youâre struggling with your mental health or experiencing financial hardship because youâve had to repay some of your student finance.
Check out:
- Â for student mental health support.
- Â for forums where you can learn from other students and ask questions.
- Â for general financial guidance.
- Ěý˛š˛ÔťĺĚý for international students.
Updates to this page
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Added information on where to find additional resources and support.
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Adding in headers to make steps hyperlinked
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First published.