what are my responsibilities?

On this page is information intended to assist students in understanding what is expected of you during enrolment and your studies, as well as information on entrance and exit counselling. This is intended to reduce the number of students who default on their loan repayments.

Entrance counselling

All students wanting to access their US loans either as a new student or continuing are required to undertake Entrance Counselling. This will cover the following topics:

• Student Loan Terms
• Financial Responsibility for the student
• Repayment Estimates and the importance of repayment
• The consequences of defaulting on the loan

Find out more about entrance counselling on the Student Aid website.

Exit counselling

Upon graduating or withdrawing, students are asked to complete exit counselling as a condition of their borrowing US Federal Loans.

On completion of the exit counselling the university requests the student send an email to confirm completion and this will be retained on the student’s file.

Whilst you are on your course there are two areas that the US Loans team will be looking at and will need to report to the US Department of Education.

• Satisfactory academic progress
• Enrolment full-time or part-time

Enrolment reporting

With the administration of US loans, our university is expected to submit accurate enrolment data to the National Student Loan Data Systems (NSLDS).

Satisfactory academic progress

While in receipt of Federal Loan funds for the loan period outlined on your loan application, you are required to be enrolled on your programme of study and to maintain satisfactory academic progress. We will check your progress with your school before releasing loan funds.

If you fail to meet the required standard in any period, you will be issued with a Financial Aid Warning, which will allow you to receive your loan for one payment period; you can appeal, and if this is successful, you will then be placed on Financial Aid Probation. Please review our Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy for further information.

Withdrawal from your course

Our university is responsible for monitoring progression and providing support for all students who are at risk of withdrawing from study. Support and guidance is provided at an early juncture should there be any indication of non-progression on a student’s academic programme. Prompt referral where necessary ensures support, information and guidance is given at the earliest opportunity. There is also a dedicated Wellbeing and Money Advice team on hand to give advice and support on any welfare / financial issues that might also result in the student withdrawing.

If you withdraw from your course, you must inform the Money Team no later than five working days after withdrawal, in addition to notifying your course office.

If a student has a suspension of studies, again the student is required to notify the Money Team as soon as possible to ensure the correct procedures are followed.

If a student who receives financial aid withdraws from their course, we will recalculate your financial aid eligibility based on your period of attendance.

Our university may have to repay funds received for tuition and / or accommodation to the US Federal Government.

Any calculation will be undertaken in line with the rules set by the US Department of Education and cannot be amended in any way.

Should a student receive Title IV Federal Aid Funding and then cease to be enrolled prior to the end of the payment period, a Return to Title IV (R2T4) will need to be completed and the unearned funds will be returned to the US Department of Education. The formula used to calculate the amount of earned and unearned funds is provided by the US Department of Education and is separate from our university's Refund Policy.

For the purposes of completing the calculation, our university uses the dates of withdrawal / last day of the student’s attendances recorded on our university’s Student Records System.

Once a student has completed more than 60% of the payment period, a student has earned 100% of the Title IV funds they were scheduled to receive in the payment period. In the case of a student completing less than and equal to 60% of the payment period, a pro rata schedule is used to determine the amount of Title IV funds the student will have earned up to the point of withdrawal. Our university must also determine if there is a post-withdrawal disbursement to be made.

The Foreign Schools Consumer Information is available for all US students with Direct Loans to access as directed by our university.

Academic Progress and Enrolment status are held on our university’s central Student Record System (BANNER) which can be accessed by all relevant offices across our university, including Student Immigration Advice and Compliance for attendance monitoring and the Money Team which authorise interviews on the Virtual Financial Aid Office and disburse the funds.

Our university receives regular monthly reports on loan default data, which is analysed. This information is used to improve default prevention. Any students identified as defaulting on their loan will be directed to their loan provider in the first instance.

It is also important that you read our Consumer Information document.