Withdrawing or Interrupting Your Studies

Interruption of Studies

Interrupting your studies means taking time out or putting your studies ‘on hold’ normally for a minimum period of three months due to personal or health reasons. This is normally done with a view to resuming the course at a later date (usually the next academic year).

When you interrupt, your student finance is usually also considered ‘on hold’ for the remainder of the academic year but please be aware that this can have a major impact on what you will be entitled to in future years.

It is important that you discuss this with the Money Support Team in Student Services, who will help you identify and understand any implications.

More information on interrupting your studies can be found in the Mitigating Circumstances Policy.

Withdrawal from Studies

Withdrawal is when you end your registration on your programme of study and all units associated with it with no intention of returning to complete at a later date.

Your student finance will be stopped for the remainder of the year and any years studied will be considered as previous study if you return in future. This may affect how much funding you can access if you decide to return to Higher Education in the future.

Contact the Programme Team to discuss your intention to withdraw. Withdrawing from your studies may also have financial implications.

We strongly recommend that you discuss your options before submitting a withdrawal form. You should not withdraw from your studies if you intend to return at a later date.

You should also discuss your intention with the Student Finance team in Student Services. They can help you understand any financial implication of your decision.

I have discussed with the Programme Team and Student Finance team

If you have discussed with the Programme Team and Student Finance Officers and still wish to withdraw, you will find the withdrawal request form within your MyTSD account

I have not discussed with the Programme Team and Student Finance Team

Before submitting a withdrawal request it is important that you contact both your Programme Team and Student Finance Officers to discuss your circumstances. For information on your Programme Team and Student Finance Team please contact the Hwb on 0300 131 3030 or hwb@uwtsd.ac.uk.

Students funded by Student Finance

When withdrawing, the University will be required to report your last date of attendance to the Student Loans Company. The amount of tuition fee loan requested by the University will equal the tuition fees due. The university will use your last date of attendance as the effective date for your withdrawal.

Depending on when you actually complete the relevant documents, this date can make a large difference to the tuition fees you are charged and maintenance loan you are entitled to and could result in an overpayment that will need to be repaid.

Once you’ve submitted your withdrawal form to the university we will notify Student Finance who will then recalculate the amount of loans / grant funding you should have received.

 If the calculation deems that you have been overpaid, Student Finance will then pass this information to the Student Loans Company who will write to you and ask you to pay back any money you are deemed to have been overpaid. This process can take several weeks and you will need to wait to hear from Student Finance and/ or Student Loans Company before you can pay any money back to them.

 It is recommended that you try not to use any more of your Student Loan until you have received the letter from Student Finance. Do not assume that because you haven’t heard anything within a few weeks that there is no overpayment – the recalculation process can take 8 weeks or more to be completed.

The Student Finance Officers at the university can help you to calculate whether you might be in overpayment and how much money you may be asked to repay to Student Finance. If you can’t pay back all of the money immediately, you’ll need to contact the Student Loans repayments team to set up a payment plan. The Student Finance officers at the university can help you to prepare for this.

Withdrawing can affect the funding you’ll receive if you return to university.

Self-Financing Students

When withdrawing, your Institute will issue an official last date of attendance (withdrawal date) and confirm this on your student record so it is visible by staff in the Finance department. Refunds can only be made once the Institute has recorded this withdrawal date on your student record.

For self-financing undergraduates if the amount paid is greater than the recalculated rate of tuition fees due a refund will be made by returning the funds to the same payee or account from which the payment was made. If the student has not paid enough fees by the time of interruption/withdrawal, then they will be notified by email to arrange payment.

Any queries regarding a refund, contact the Finance department via email at fees@uwtsd.ac.uk.

If you decide to take an interruption of studies, we expect that you will return to complete your course at a later date so the process is a bit different depending on when you interrupt. If approved, the interruption is normally applied from the date the completed application was received by the Programme Manager (or nominee).

Normally you will be required to align your return to studies with the time of your original intake.

You must also discuss your intention to interrupt with the Money Support Team in Student Services. They can help you understand any financial implication of your decision.

If you withdraw from your course, the amount of tuition fees you pay will depend on the date you complete the withdrawal form on MyTSD.

After an initial two-week period where a withdrawal would result in no fees being charged, the following tabled criteria will apply:

Students funded by Student Finance

Students must complete a Student Request to Withdraw Form, or submit a request on MyTSD, if they wish to withdraw from a programme their studies. If a student does not notify the university of their withdrawal, and if the last date of attendance is unclear, the University reserves the right to use the date of the Examining Board at which their candidature was withdrawn for the purpose of the calculation of fees. This could lead to an additional 25% of fess due, depending on the scheduling of the exam board.

Maintenance Funding from Student Finance

The amount of maintenance funding you are entitled to during an incomplete year is calculated on a pro rata basis using your last date of attendance.  For example, if you have received £1000 maintenance funding for a term and your last date of attendance is exactly mid-way through the term, then the Student Loans Company would calculate your overspend as £500.  

If a student is informed that they have had an overpayment and are unable to repay, it is advised that they do the following, depending on their circumstances:

Withdrawal – When you receive the letter notifying you of an overpayment, ring the Student Loans Company on the number provided on the letter to arrange an affordable monthly repayment (or to put a hold on the account until this is possible). Please be aware that if you start another course before you have repaid all of the overpayment, the balance outstanding will be deducted from your Student Finance entitlement during the first year of your new course.

Interruption of Study – As above, but students who have interrupted need to be aware that any outstanding overpayment that has not been repaid by the time they return to their studies, will be taken from any future funding entitlements by Student Finance Wales / England/ NI / SAAS

This means that if you were entitled to £1,000 maintenance funding but had a previous overpayment of £500, then you would only receive £500 when you return.

If you’re suspending your studies because of medical reasons that have affected your ability to study, then you will need to provide medical evidence to the University so that they can record the interruption of Studies as medical grounds.

In these circumstances you are allowed to keep a further 60 days’ worth of Student Finance (after the date of the interruption). You will need to contact Student Finance to check that this has been applied.

Tuition fee funding from student finance is limited to the length of your course plus one extra year

If you’ve studied before and have an Honours degree from a UK university or college then:

• you may not be eligible for any support; or
• your entitlement may be limited to certain years.

To understand how this impacts you, the general rule is that you’re eligible for student support for the length of your higher education course plus one year where a qualification is not achieved. However, the support will be reduced by the number of years you have previously studied.

This is shown in the formula below:

Duration of new course + 1 year – No of years on previous course = x years of entitlement

For example:

Jane started a full-time course in academic year 2013/14 but only completed 2 years of study. She now wishes to return to full-time study. Her new course is 3 years long.

Duration of Jane’s new course (3) +1 year – Jane’s previous study (2) = 2 years

This means that Jane can receive 2 years of funding for her new higher education course. She will need to fund one year herself.

As funding is awarded in the final year of a new course and each preceding year that is funded, Jane will need to self-fund the first year of her course. This means she wouldn’t be able to apply for a Tuition Fee Loan or a Welsh Government Learning Grant/Special Support Grant; she would, however, still be able to apply for a Maintenance Loan and supplementary grants such as Disabled Students’ Allowances in her self-funded year.

If you feel that something out of your control had a significantly detrimental effect on your academic performance or ability to study and you had to interrupt studies or repeat the year, you are able to apply for additional funding on the grounds of CPR.

CPR can include health-related issues, disability, family problems or bereavement but this list is not exhaustive.

If you think that this applies to you and would like to submit a case to Student Finance for CPR, please contact Student Services at StudentServices@uwtsd.ac.uk to help you.

You will usually need to provide evidence of your circumstances and / or how they affected your ability to complete your studies if you submit an application for additional funding on the grounds of compelling personal reasons. This might be a letter from your GP if you were unwell, a supporting letter from your tutor or counsellor (where relevant) if you shared information about your circumstances with them at the time.

If you suffered a close family bereavement you may be asked to provide a copy of the death certificate. It can be difficult to collate this evidence if several years have passed before you return to Higher Education so if you decide to withdraw form your studies on these grounds it is worth gathering as much evidence as you can now in case you need it in the future.

There is no guarantee additional funding will be provided, as this is at the discretion of Student Finance.

Interruption of Studies

If you intend to take an Interruption of studies and have already received the maximum amount of Postgraduate Funding, you will not be entitled to any further payments from SFW or SFE when you return to study, even if the suspension is due to Compelling Personal Reasons (CPR) such as health-related issues, disability, family problems or bereavement.

If you have only received a partial amount of your Postgraduate Funding entitlement, your payments will stop when you take the interruption of studies but you will be eligible for the remaining amount when you resume your studies. If you get a payment whilst you are on the Interruption of studies you may be asked to repay it straight away.

Withdrawal

If you have decided to withdraw from your Master’s course and have received Postgraduate Funding from SFW or SFE, you will not be eligible for additional Postgraduate Funding for a future Master’s course, even if you have not received the maximum amount for the current course.

However, if you are withdrawing from the course due to Compelling Personal Reasons (CPR), you can submit a request for discretionary funding for a new course. You can only do this once. Please read the information in the CPR section if you think you will need to apply for this discretionary funding.

Repeating all or part of your course

If you ned to repeat any part of your course, or your course is extended, you will not be entitled to any further payments of Postgraduate Funding, unless you have not accessed the maximum funding available. This is the case even if study needs to be repeated or extended due to Compelling Personal Reasons (CPR) such as health-related issues, disability, family problems or bereavement.

Transferring to a different course

If you transfer to another postgraduate Master’s or Doctoral course between academic years, and have not accessed the full amount of Postgraduate funding, you will remain eligible for your remaining Postgraduate Master’s Funding or Postgraduate Doctoral Loan.

If, however, you transfer to another course and have already accessed the maximum amount of Postgraduate Funding, you will not be entitled to any further payments from SFW or SFE, even if the transfer is due to Compelling Personal Reasons (CPR) such as health-related issues, disability, family problems or bereavement.

Overpayments

Depending on your Last Date of Attendance, the funding you have received will be re-calculated on a pro-rata basis. Any amount that you have received as an overpayment, will need to be paid back to the Student Loans Company. When you receive the letter notifying you of an overpayment, ring the Student Loans Company on the number provided on the letter to arrange an affordable monthly repayment (or to put a hold on the account until this is possible).

Tuition Fees

Please see the section about tuition fees to help you understand how the university will calculate how much you owe in tuition fees and whether you are entitled to any refund.