Do I Have To Repay All My Student Finance If I Drop Out Of University?
Do I have to pay everything back at the same time?
1. COURSE FEES
To be entitled to a tuition fee loan, you must attend university for over three months. If you drop out before the three-month cut-off period, then the university may ask you to pay fees for the time you attend.
(If you attend for over three months, then you are allowed to pay back the fees once to start earning up to the required amount).
Note that because you won’t meet the loan entitlement i.e. three months, you’ll need to pay for the time you did attend out of your pocket.
2. ACCOMMODATION COST
Accommodations are usually the main financial stress when dropping out of university. When acquiring an accommodation, a contract is usually signed for a year. This means that your accommodation cost must be paid regardless of what may happen.
- University Halls: These are rented for a year and must be paid, regardless of whether you drop out.
- Private Landlord: Depending on the contract's small prints, some Landlords may allow you to find another tenant to take over for the rest of the year. If not, the rent will still have to be paid.
Universities usually give the option of instalments.
Landlords may want all of the rent or could permit instalments.
3. LOAN REPAYMENT
For tuition fee loans and maintenance loans from Student Finance, you’ll only start repaying your loan when you earn over £17,335 (if you started university before September 2012) or over £21,000 (if you started university during or after September 2012).
It is important to know that if there are any overlaps between the amounts you received and the amount you were entitled to, you can be asked to pay it back at any time.
5. Local Education Authority (LEA)
If you receive funding from your Local Education Authority (LEA) then you are only entitled to funding when you attend lectures. This means that if you stopped attending university before you dropped out, you’ll need to pay back the fund you received when you weren’t entitled to them.
4. BURSARIES
Most bursaries are non-repayable, but if you drop out of university you might be asked to pay them back. However, bursaries act under a general rule that you don’t have to pay back funds for completed terms, but if you drop out in the middle of the term you may need to pay those funds back.
