Student Finance England Funding

UK Residents

All returning students need to reapply for student funding each returning year.  Student Finance England (SFE) online application typically opens in March. 

EU Residents

EU Returning students need to complete an EUPR1A form and submit this to SFE Student Finance England (SFE) application  - Student Finance Services Student Loans Company PO Box 89 Darlington County Durham England United Kingdom DL1 9AZ

Funding for repeat/re-take years

If you're repeating or retaking a year, your Student Finance England (SFE) funding could be affected, depending on whether you've previously repeated a year or suspended mid-way through a year or if you have any attendance on an earlier degree-level course.  Please see Funding for repeat years

Reassessment without attendances

If you have no timetabled attendance and you're only required to submit an exam or outstanding coursework/dissertation, you may be registered as ‘reassessment without attendances’. Usually, no tuition fees are charged when you are registered as reassessment without attendances, and you do not require a tuition fee loan to pay any fees for this year. You're also not entitled to a maintenance loan from SFE if you normally receive this. 

Funding for placement years

Students are only entitled to receive a reduced rate Maintenance Loan and Tuition Fee Loan of up to £1,850 for a placement year. This is regardless of whether the placement is paid or unpaid. Exceptions to this are listed below.

The Maintenance Loan

The Maintenance Loan is paid at a reduced rate during a placement year. For the 2023/24 academic year, the maximum loan available is £2,267 if you live at home with your parents and £4,244 if you live away from home while attending a London university. However, you will receive the normal full-time rate of the loan if your placement falls into one of the exceptions below.

How to pay tuition fees

SFE will pay your tuition directly to the University.

How to repay your loan

If you began your course in September 2012 or later, you only start repaying when you are earning more than £27,295 each year before tax. Repayments start in April, following course completion or following withdrawal from a course.

Your repayments are linked to your earnings, not the level of your student loan debt. If you earn above £27,295 you will pay the equivalent of 9% of your earnings. After 30 years of repayment, your loan balance will be wiped.

If you started your course after 1 August 2023, you'll begin repaying your loan when you are earning £25,000 a year before tax. After 40 years of repayment, your loan balance will be wiped.

Interest is added from the day the loans are paid to you. The amount of interest charged is lower while you study but increases when you stop studying and will be based on your earnings.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) manage loan repayments, so you can find out more by visiting the Student Loans Company website.

Postgraduate student funding

How to pay tuition fees

SFE will pay the loan directly to the student.  It is the student's responsibility to pay their tuition to the University.

Payment and repayment

The loan is not assessed against household income, so there is no income assessment. The loan is paid over one year for a full-time course or divided equally over two years for a part-time course. Instalments are paid three times a year: 33% on the course start date, the next 33% four months later and the final 34% seven months after the course start date.

The payments are made directly to you, not the University. Unlike SFE funding for undergraduate courses, a separate tuition fee loan payment is not paid directly to the University on your behalf, so make sure you're able to pay your course tuition fee using the loan money paid to you or using other additional funds you have secured yourself.

It is repaid once you complete your course and only if you earn above the earnings threshold of £21,000 per year. You will pay back 6% of what you earn above the threshold. The earliest you will start to make repayments is the April after you finish your course.

More information about repaying this loan is available from on the GOV.UK website.

If you withdraw from your studies, you’ll be leaving your course completely with no intention of returning.

When you withdraw, you’ll no longer be considered a student. If you decide you would like to study with us again, you’ll be required to complete the admissions process from scratch.

You should consider:

• If your decision will have an impact on the Student Finance England (SFE) funding available for your current course or any future course
• Whether the date you make a change to your studies will impact the tuition fees you owe or any refund you may be entitled to. See the ‘fee liability’ section below for more information
• Whether SFE will consider you have been overpaid the Maintenance Loan if you withdraw mid term
• Whether you will be liable to continue to pay for your accommodation or halls of residence. You may have signed a contract for a set period and if you decide to leave, you may still be liable to pay rent for the remainder of the contract
• How you will financially support yourself while not attending your course

Before you withdraw, the University has different support teams in place that might be able to help you:

• If you're struggling with your work and need academic advice, contact your Personal Tutor.
• If you’ve been unable to submit coursework please visit Exams and coursework on the  Student Director
• If you’re having personal difficulties and you’d like emotional support, consider making an appointment with our Student Wellbeing and Inclusivity Service to talk about the issues in confidence
• If your problems relate to your finances, funding or immigration status, speak to our Funding Team
• If you have an ongoing health issue/disability/Specific Learning Difficulty that's affecting your studies, visit our Disability and accessibility and find out whether you are entitled to any individual assessment arrangements

Student Finance England funding implications

If you receive funding from Student Finance England (SFE), withdrawing from your studies will affect your SFE funding and entitlement.

Tuition Fee Loan

Once you submit your withdrawal from studies form, the funding team will notify SFE of your withdrawal through a Change of Circumstance. You must also notify SFE that you are withdrawing from your course so that they can revise your funding entitlement and cancel any further payments of your Tuition Fee Loan.

Maintenance Loan and additional grants

If you withdraw partway through the academic year, SFE will reassess your funding entitlement for the year and you may be asked to repay some of the Maintenance Loan and/or any grants you've received, eg Parents’ Learning Allowance, Adult Dependents Grant or Childcare Grant.

Any overpayment of your Maintenance Loan will be calculated from the day you withdraw from the course. You won’t be asked to repay any funding received for any period of study until the April following your withdrawal and when you reach the relevant repayment threshold.

If you’re withdrawing from your course to start another degree course at another university, any overpayments may affect your entitlement to a Maintenance Loan or grants for your new course. See further information on transferring below.

Postgraduate Master’s Loan

When a postgraduate student withdraws from their course, all future payments of Postgraduate Master’s Loan will be cancelled. Any overpayment of your Master’s Loan will be calculated by reassessing the maximum loan available. 

Your completed form will automatically be received by your department. They will process your request before passing it to the Student Progress team (Colchester) or Student Administration (Southend) who will close your student record. It’s also good practice to contact SFE yourself to let them know you have withdrawn. You’re entitled to keep any payments of loan you received up until you withdraw. If you receive a loan payment after your withdrawal date, this will be treated by SFE as an overpayment and you will be asked to return this payment.

You’ll be ineligible for another Master’s Loan (even where you did not receive full payment of your loan) unless you can prove that you did not complete the course due to a compelling personal reason (CPR), such as illness, bereavement or personal difficulties. You should discuss your case with Student Advice if you think this applies to you.

Overpayments

When SFE receive confirmation from your Registry that you have withdrawn from your course, they’ll reassess your entitlement to Student Finance.  Any loans or grants paid to you during a period when you’re no longer studying or attending your course will be reassessed. This may result in an overpayment. This is because you're only entitled to receive student finance when you are fully enrolled and attending your course. SFE will ask for the overpayment to be repaid to them and will decide on the method of recovery. You’ll need to discuss the repayment options with SFE.

It's important to note if you decide to start a new degree course in the future and you have not repaid any overpaid loan or grant amounts, SFE can deduct the overpayment from your new SFE funding entitlement. You should discuss the repayment options with SFE.

Find out more about overpayment recovery on the gov.uk website.

For more detailed information and advice about the effect on your funding and options available, contact Funding Team.

Previous study and SFE funding

Previous study on a degree level course undertaken in the UK or any other country affects SFE funding. Attendance on Higher National Certificates (HNCs) and Higher National Diplomas (HNDs) also counts as previous study for SFE purposes.

Your attendance on your course or any previous degree level course will reduce your entitlement to receive a Tuition Fee Loan, Maintenance Loan and Special Support grant for a future degree-level course, even if you only attended for one day and even if you did not apply for or receive any SFE funding.

Repaying your student loan

You’ll only repay your student loan when your income is over the threshold amount for your repayment plan. The threshold amounts change on 6 April every year.

The earliest you’ll start repaying is:

• the April after you leave your course
• the April four years after the course started if your course is longer than four years, for example if you’re studying part-time or doing a Postgraduate Doctoral course
• April 2026 if you’re on Plan 5

Your repayments automatically stop if either:

• you stop working
• your income goes below the threshold

Read more about repaying your student loan on the gov.uk website.

Transferring to another course or university

If you’re transferring to another university, you must complete the Withdrawal from Studies form and state that you’re transferring to a new institution. They’ll need to confirm to SFE that they accept you as a transfer student.

If you’re transferring to another course at University of Essex, you must complete the Change of Course form. The University will notify SFE of your change in circumstances, but we recommend you also notify them that you are transferring.

If you stop attending your current course part way through the year, your SFE funding should also stop and you won’t be entitled to any further payments until you resume studies. The amount of student Maintenance Loan (and grants, if you receive these) you’re entitled to receive for the year will be recalculated and can sometime result in an overpayment.

Regardless of whether you are treated as a new or continuing student, any years or part years you have studied as a full-time degree student will reduce the funding available to you for your new full-time course.

Intermitting your studies means you are taking a break from your course with the intention of returning later. This guide sets out some important information about how these processes work from a financial support perspective.

This information for full-time undergraduate Home / EU students in receipt of Student Finance England (SFE) funding.

• Part-time and postgraduate students should contact the Funding Team to discuss the financial implications of intermitting
• If you are an International student on a Tier 4/ Student visa, please International Services team as intermitting or withdrawing will affect your visa

Student Finance England funding implications

Before you intermit, the University has different support teams in place that might be able to help you:

• If you're struggling with your work and need academic advice, contact your Personal Tutor.
• If you’ve been unable to submit coursework please visit Exams and coursework on the  Student Director
• If you’re having personal difficulties and you’d like emotional support, consider making an appointment with our Student Wellbeing and Inclusivity Service to talk about the issues in confidence
• If your problems relate to your finances, funding or immigration status, speak to our Funding Team
• If you have an ongoing health issue/disability/Specific Learning Difficulty that's affecting your studies, visit our Disability and accessibility and find out whether you are entitled to any individual assessment arrangements

Intermitting before the start of the academic year

If you intermitting before the start of the academic year, the university will not confirm your attendance and registration to SFE/EU Team and your funding will stop. You will normally be eligible for your usual SFE funding to start again when you re-join the course. You must make an application to SFE or the EU Team, usually from March onwards, for your funding to start again at the beginning of the next academic year.

Your university will report your Intermission to Student Finance England (SFE) or the EU Team (if you are receiving the EU Fee Loan) via an electronic Change Of Circumstances. They can also confirm your resumption of studies date to SFE. 

All returning students need to register. If you are returning at the start of the academic year (October), you will be contacted by email with information about registering. If you are returning at the start of the spring or summer term (January or April), you will be contacted by the Student Progress Team

To resume your funding after a year of intermission, you will need to make an application to SFE or the EU Team, usually from March onwards, for your funding to be available at the beginning of the next academic year.

Enrolment counts as one year of funding

Once you have enrolled for the academic year, you are regarded as having used up one year of your SFE funding entitlement regardless of the actual length of time you attend your course. Even as little as one day of attendance or enrolment means you have used up one full year of your SFE funding entitlement. 

If you intermitted for more than two years, Student Finance England may treat you as a new student when you resume your course and your eligibility for funding would be considered under the eligibility rules in place at the time. 

Intermitting during the academic year

All future payments of your loans and grants will be suspended and re-calculated pro rata to the amount you are entitled to receive up to the date you intermission. If you have received too much Maintenance Loan or grant/s, SFE will ask you to repay the amount overpaid. Please see the 'Overpayments' section below.  

Ill health and SFE 60-day extension of payment

If you intermit due to ill health, you can continue to receive your student funding for a further 60 days after your intermission. You must tick the box on your Intermission Your Studies form stating that you are intermitting from your studies on the grounds of health reasons and you must provide evidence of your ill health to your Registry Office. If this is accepted, your Registry can confirm this in their electronic report to SFE as your reason for intermission. Alternatively, you can send evidence to SFE to request this yourself, but it will take longer to approve. 

Discretionary payments / financial hardship

SFE can, in theory, continue to fund you during your intermission. This is at their discretion and happens rarely. You will need to write to SFE requesting discretionary funding during your intermission by detailing your special circumstances and the financial difficulties you may encounter without SFE payments during this time. SFE will send you a Discretionary Payments form requesting evidence of your financial circumstances and commitments. 

State benefits during intermission

Most full-time students are excluded from claiming benefits even during a period of intermission.

If you have dependent children or are in receipt of Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment, you may be eligible to claim benefits during the time you intermit your studies. If you have intermitted from your course due to ill health or because of caring responsibilities, you may be entitled to claim Universal Credit (or Job Seekers Allowance and Housing Benefit) once you are no longer ill or once your caring responsibilities have ended. You can claim until the date you resume the course or for one year, whichever is sooner. You must be available for and actively seeking work and be able to meet the commitments of your Job seeking agreement.

Resuming studies

If you intermit between academic years and are resuming your course from the point you intermitted, your student finance entitlement should not be affected.

If you intermitted during an academic year and need to repeat a semester or the whole year, the following sets out how your funding entitlement will be affected.

Repeating a year and SFE funding

If this is the first degree-level course you have ever attended and the first time you have to repeat a year of your course you should still have your “gift year” of funding available. A “gift year” is an extra year of SFE funding. This can be used to fund your repeat year and entitles you to receive your usual SFE Loans and Grants during this time.

If you have already used up your gift year because of previous study or previous repeat years, you will not be entitled to receive a Tuition Fee Loan for your repeat year unless compelling personal reasons caused you to repeat. Compelling Personal Reasons can retrospectively be considered for any earlier previous repeat years.

Additional year of SFE funding for Compelling Personal Reasons (CPR)

If your studies have been affected by 'Compelling Personal Reasons', e.g. illness, bereavement or personal difficulties, that have resulted in you having to repeat a year of your course, you can ask SFE to consider you eligible for loans and grants during this additional year, at their discretion. This is called a CPR year.

This is especially useful if you have used up your standard entitlement to Student Finance, as it is an additional year of full funding that includes a Tuition Fee Loan. To be considered for a CPR year, you need to provide Student Finance England with evidence of the issues that affected your study and caused you to repeat and must ask them to consider this.

You should do this once you have re-applied for your funding for the next year of your course. You can also see our Guide to CPR which can help you to apply for a CPR year and discuss

SFE can backdate a CPR year if you did not apply for this at the time (e.g. you may have repeated an earlier year of your course and either used your “gift year” or funded the repeat year yourself). Again, you will need to provide evidence of the circumstances. If SFE approves this, it can mean that once a CPR year is backdated, your “gift year” is re-instated and available to use for your current repeat year instead. This is especially useful if you have no CPR for your current repeat year eg you are repeating purely because of academic reasons. Please funding team to discuss this further.

If you attended a degree level course prior to your current course but had to withdraw because of compelling personal reasons, SFE can also consider awarding a CPR year to cover the first year of a new degree course. Again, you must provide evidence. SFE will only ever award one year of additional funding and under this rule, it will always be awarded to cover the first year of your new course. Therefore, if you have studied more than one degree course, or you repeated a year while attending your earlier course please contact the Student Advice Team to check your funding entitlement for a new course.

Overpayment of Maintenance Loan

If you intermitted and intend to return to your course, an overpayment of Maintenance Loan can be recovered from future Maintenance Loan payments due to be paid the following year. If you have left or completed your course, the method of recovery will depend on the circumstances in which the overpayment occurred. You will receive a payment schedule letter detailing the amounts to be recovered. Recovery of an overpayment is a separate process from the normal income-contingent loan repayments which will start from April after you have graduated or left your course and if you are earning over the income threshold.

Overpayment of grants for living costs

This includes Special Support Grant, Maintenance Grant, Parents Learning Allowance, Childcare Grant, Adult Dependents Grant.

If you are intermitting and intend to return to your course, an overpayment of the grant can be recovered from your future grant payments due to be paid the following year. If you have been overpaid, you will receive a payment schedule letter detailing the amounts to be recovered. If you have withdrawn from your course, SFE may seek to recover the overpayment directly from you.

SFE can recover overpaid loans and grants in the methods described above but they can also exercise discretion as to how and when to go about this. For example, if the recovery will lead to financial hardship, you can write to SFE to negotiate how and when the overpayment is recovered.

Student Finance England has useful further information about overpayments.

Intermitting as an EU/EEA/Swiss national

The UK Government confirmed that EU students who are continuing a course that started prior to September 2021 will remain eligible for SFE financial support for the duration of their course even if the course ends after 31 December 2020. EU students must have applied for either Settled or Pre-Settled status before 30 June 2021 to continue to be eligible for student finance. 

If you are an EU Migrant Worker receiving a maintenance loan and you intermitted, you must continue to meet the employment requirements to remain eligible for funding when you return to your studies. 

If you plan to be outside the UK during the period you intermission, it’s important to note that immigration rules only allow you to be absent for a maximum period of six months in any 12-month period if you plan to apply for Settled status after five years. There are exceptions. Please contact the Student Advice Team to discuss your individual circumstances.

Student Finance England funding implications

If you receive funding from Student Finance England (SFE), transferring from your studies will affect your SFE funding and entitlement.

Tuition Fees

If you are being funded through Student Finance, you should inform them of your transfer as they may need to cancel any further payments of your Tuition Fee Loan. Your Registry Office will also notify Student Finance of your transfer through a Change of Circumstance.

SFE pay your tuition fees in three instalments near the beginning of each term during the academic year. No fees are paid to the University until your attendance is confirmed to SFE. If your transfer is reported by your Registry before the next fee payment is due, your next instalment of Tuition Fee should not be paid. However, if a Tuition Fee Loan instalment is paid in error for a period that you were not liable to pay fees, SFE will recover this money from the University.

Maintenance Loan and Additional Grants

If you transfer partway through the academic year, SFE will re-assess your funding entitlement for the year and you may be asked to repay some of the Maintenance Loan and/or any Grants you've received, e.g Parents Learning Allowance, Adult Dependents Grant or Childcare grant.

You will not be entitled to any further payments until you resume your studies.

Any overpayment of Maintenance Loan will be calculated from the day you stop studying on your course.

If you are withdrawing from this course to transfer to another degree course at another University any overpayments may affect your entitlement to a maintenance loan or grants for your new course.

See further details on overpayments below.

Postgraduate Masters Loan

If you are in receipt of the Masters Loan, you can transfer to a course in the same academic year. Any payments you are due when you transfer to your new course will be aligned to the payment periods of the new course. If you are transferring to a new course at a new institution, you must ensure your new institution confirms to SFE that you have been accepted onto your new course as a transfer.

Overpayments

When SFE receive confirmation from your Registry that you have transferred from your course, they will reassess your entitlement to Student Finance. Any loans or grants paid to you during a period when you are no longer studying or attending your course will be re-assessed. This may result in an overpayment. This is because you are only entitled to receive Student Finance when you are fully enrolled and attending your course. SFE will ask for any overpayments to be repaid to them and will decide on the method of recovery. You will need to discuss the repayment options with SFE.

It is important to note if you decide to start a new degree course in the future and you have not repaid any overpaid loan or grant amounts, SFE can deduct the overpayment from your new SFE funding entitlement. You should discuss the repayment options with SFE.

For more information about overpayment recovery, visit: media.slc.co.uk/sfe/overpayment/index.html.

Previous study and SFE funding

Your attendance on this course or any previous degree level course will reduce your entitlement to receive a Tuition Fee Loan and Maintenance/Special Support Grant for a future degree-level course, even if you only attended for one day and even if you did not apply for or receive any SFE funding.

Previous study on a degree level course undertaken in the UK or any other country affects SFE funding. Attendance on HND and HNC courses also counts as a previous study for SFE purposes.

Changing my mode of study

If you’re thinking of changing between part-time and full-time studies (changing your ‘mode of study’), make sure you first discuss your options with your course leader. You will also need to check if the course you wish to study is available part-time, as not all our courses are offered in this mode of attendance.

There will be funding implications if you change your mode of study. SFE funding entitlements are different for full time and part time students.

Transferring to a course of a different length

If you are currently on a 4-year degree course and you will transfer to a 3-year degree course, depending on the years you have studied previously, your future entitlement can be adversely affect by this decision. Please seek advice from us before transferring.

If you transfer from a course with a foundation attached and then join a new course without a foundation, this could also affect your funding.

If you would like help to calculate your entitlement to funding, please contact Funding team.

This information is for UK/Home undergraduate students who meet the eligibility rules to receive Student Finance England funding and are repeating a year of their course/repeating modules. 

EU students receiving Tuition Fee Loan from Student Finance EU Team

This information also applies but only for the fee loan, as you do not receive a Maintenance Loan, Maintenance Grant, Special Support Grant or any additional grants. You must contact the SFE EU Team to apply for repeat funding.

Previous repeat years and eligibility

If you have already used up your ‘Gift Year’, either because you have already repeated a year (either at this university or a previous university) or because you have studied on another higher education course in the past, you will only be eligible for Tuition Fee Loan and the Maintenance Grant or Special Support Grant for this repeat year if you had mitigating circumstances or ‘compelling personal reasons’ which affected your studies in 2022–23 or in an earlier year of study. 

If you did not have mitigating circumstances or ‘compelling personal reasons’ for needing to repeat, or if you do not have independent evidence of your circumstances, you will need to pay your own fees for the repeat year. If you are funded by SFE, you will not get the Maintenance Grant or the Special Support Grant (if you normally receive these). You will still be eligible for the Maintenance Loan and any additional grants, such as Disabled Students’ Allowance, the Parent Learning Allowance, and the Childcare Grant. If you are funded by the Student Finance EU Team, you will not receive any funding for the repeat year. 

Compelling personal reasons

If you had personal or medical problems which affected your performance during previous years of study and if you have independent evidence of these (e.g. a doctor’s letter), you can ask SFE for repeat funding for ‘compelling personal reasons’ (CPR). SFE or the SFE EU Team can award you an extra year’s funding on CPR grounds if they accept your evidence. 

Unable to pay repeat fees

Please contact Funding team to discuss your situation before re-enrolling for 2023–24. Re-enrolling in October without a viable plan for paying your fees could affect your ability to continue attending the course and could also adversely affect your future entitlement to SFE funding. Student Advice can talk through your situation with you and help you make an informed decision about the financial aspects of your studies.

Assessment only students

 You must be attending timetabled lectures and in attendance on the course to be eligible for SFE funding.

Final-year students repeating and applying for SFE funding 

If you have been studying in your final year in 2022–23, you may not be able to apply online for Student Finance funding for 2023–24. This is because the SFE systems will think you have completed the degree course and not allow you to reapply as a continuing student. If you cannot apply for a further year’s funding for your existing course online, you must complete a paper application form (PR1 form) which is available via Student Finance Forms. 

If you receive funding from the EU Team and are eligible for a further year’s funding, you will need to fill in form EU22N. 

Next steps for repeat SFE funding

The funding team will notify SFE of your change of circumstances and confirm you are repeating a year of study. You also need to contact Student Finance England (or the EU team if you are an EU student) as soon as possible. You must report the fact that you will be repeating all or part of your course in 2023–24. You may also need to adjust the amount of the Tuition Fee Loan you have requested. Your student finance for 2023–24 will then be reassessed, and you will be sent a revised Financial Assessment by SFE. 

If you are requesting repeat funding for ‘compelling personal reasons’ (CPR), you must write a letter to SFE explaining your circumstances, and you must also send in independent evidence of these circumstances, e.g., a letter from your doctor. Always quote your SFE Customer Reference Number, send any correspondence by recorded delivery and keep a copy. Alternatively, you can upload your letter and evidence to your SFE online account. If you are eligible for a ‘Gift Year’ or for CPR funding, SFE will reassess your entitlement and will still assess you as eligible for a Tuition Fee Loan and Maintenance/Special Support Grant as well as the Maintenance Loan. 

If your reassessment from SFE shows £0 for the Tuition Fee Loan and no Maintenance/Special Support Grant but you think you should be eligible for a ‘Gift Year’ or a CPR year, please contact the Funding team as soon as possible. We can check your entitlement and get in touch with SFE if an error has been made. 

It is very important to check your SFE online account or phone SFE on 0300 100 0607 to make sure the change has been processed before you register for the 2023–24 academic year. If you are an EU student, phone 0141 243 3570. 

If Student Finance England/the EU Team has not processed your change of circumstances before you register, you may be paid a fee loan that you are not entitled to. This could result in your fee loan being reclaimed by SFE. The University will then hold you personally liable to pay your own fees. In addition, any overpaid grants or maintenance loans will also be reclaimed by SFE. 

If you are not clear about your Student Finance eligibility, please contact the funding team before you register for your course for the new academic year.

Part-time undergraduate students

Student Finance England does not award additional years of funding for repeat part-time study even if the repeat was caused by compelling personal reasons.

Postgraduate degree students

Student Finance England does not award additional years of funding for the Postgraduate Master's loan if you repeat a year of your course, even if the repeat was caused by compelling personal reasons. A CPR year is only an option if you had to withdraw from your previous course and did not complete a previous course because of compelling personal reasons (CPR). If SFE accepts this, they can consider awarding you one additional year of loan for a new course. This has to be a completely new course with new modules. If you are still enrolled on a course, you must withdraw and start a new course. You cannot carry credits over from a previous course to the new course.

A CPR year loan can only be awarded once, no matter how many courses you start. For CPR to be considered you must apply to SFE for the PG Master's loan and provide SFE with satisfactory evidence of your circumstances. CPR can include ill health or bereavement but other issues can also be considered. CPR funding is not guaranteed and is at the discretion of SFE intermitting your studies: understand the financial implications

There are many reasons why students consider making a change to their studies or taking time out. This is an important decision, so it’s important that you explore your options before you decide which route to take.

It is always a good idea to think through why you want to make a change to your course and get specialist advice to help you with your decision. You should always get academic advice from your Personal Tutor.

Before deciding, you should also consider that:

• Your decision may have an impact on the SFE/EU funding available for your current course or any future course
• The date on which you make a change to your studies may an impact on the tuition fees you owe or any refund you might be entitled to
• You may need to continue to pay for your accommodation. You might have signed a contract for a set period so if you decide to leave you may still be liable to pay rent
• How you will support yourself financially while not attending your course