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 you’re 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. They’ll take some details from you, including your last day.
Your uni or college will send us these details to tell us that you’ve withdrawn. We use these to work out how much student finance you’re entitled to.
2. Contact us so we can stop your next student finance payment
Sometimes you’ll 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 we’ll stop your next student finance payment.
Any Maintenance Loan you’re paid after your withdrawal date needs to be paid back straight away.
Your Tuition Fee Loan is repaid as normal.
If you’re leaving one course to transfer to another, you don’t need to contact us. Your university will let us know. We’ll reassess your application and send you a letter if your entitlement has changed. See steps 4 and 5.
3. We’ll reassess your application
We’ll use the date your uni or college gave us to work out how much student finance you’re 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 you’re entitled to £800.
You need to repay £400. If you can’t repay this straight away, you can contact us to set up a payment plan.
4. We’ll send you a letter if your entitlement has changed
We’ll write to you to let you know if the amount you’re entitled to has changed.
5. Repay anything you’re not entitled to
If you’ve been paid more than you’re entitled to, you’ll usually need to repay this straight away, even if you’re earning below the repayment threshold. If you can’t 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 you’ve 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 you’ve 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 doesn’t apply if you withdraw or transfer.
Additional resources and support
There are a number of organisations that you can talk to for support if you’re struggling with your mental health or experiencing financial hardship because you’ve had to repay some of your student finance.
Check out:
- Student Minds for student mental health support.
- The Student Room for forums where you can learn from other students and ask questions.
- Money Helper for general financial guidance.
- UKCISA and UUK for international students.
Last updated 26 October 2023 + show all updates
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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.