GovWire

If youre 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 discover 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. Theyll take some details from you, including your last day.

Your uni or college will send us these details to tell us that youve withdrawn. We use these to work out how much student finance youre entitled to.

2. Contact us so we can stop your next student finance payment

Sometimes youll 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 contact us and well stop your next student finance payment.

Any Maintenance Loan youre paid after your withdrawal date needs to be paid back straight away.

Your Tuition Fee Loan is repaid as normal.

3. Well reassess your application

Well use the date your uni or college gave us to work out how much student finance youre entitled to. This is because you can only get funding for the time you were in study.

Example:You were paid 1,200 at the start of term (100 a week for a 12-week term).

You leave after 8 weeks, so youre entitled to 800.

You need to repay 400. If you cant repay this straight away, you can contact us to set up a payment plan.

4. Well send you a letter if your entitlement has changed

Well write to you to let you know if the amount youre entitled to has changed.

5. Repay anything youre not entitled to

If youve been paid more than youre entitled to, youll usually need to repay this straight away, even if youre earning below the repayment threshold. If you cant 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 youve 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:

• your university has told us that youve suspended for health reasons

• you send us evidence, such as a letter from your doctor

Extra funding is only awarded if you suspend your studies. It doesnt apply if you withdraw or transfer.

Additional resources and support

There are a number of organisations that you can talk to for support if youre struggling with your mental health or experiencing financial hardship because youve had to repay some of your student finance.

Check out:

• Student Mindsfor student mental health support.
• The Student Roomfor forums where you can learn from other students and ask questions.
• Money Helperfor general financial guidance.
• UKCISAandUUKfor international students.