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We offer advice about student funding, benefits, budgeting and debt, over the phone and at appointments. We run a Money Advice Line on 0113 812 5593. It is open Monday to Thursday between 10:00 and 12:00.
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Student finances when changing study
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You might decide or need to repeat study, transfer course or take time out.
Check the information on this page and speak to a money adviser because the choices that you make can affect your funding.
Repeating study
If you need to repeat some of your course your funding could be affected.
You can get the tuition fee loan for the length of your course, plus one ‘gift year’. If you have not repeated study or studied on another university course, then you can use your gift year of tuition fee loan.
If you have repeated study before or have studied on another course and so have used up your gift year, then you will have to pay the tuition fees for the repeat year yourself.
However, if you are having to repeat because ‘compelling personal reasons’ like illness or bereavement have affected your study then you could ask Student Finance England to take these into account.
You will need to write a letter explaining how your studies were affected and provide evidence. If you would like some help writing to Student Finance England, speak to a student money adviser.
You can carry on getting the maintenance loan and other grants until you complete the course, even if you are repeating study. But you can usually only get them when you are attending your course. So if you are repeating modules in just one term, the rules say that you can only get the maintenance loan for that term. Student Finance England can sometimes still pay the maintenance loan for periods when you are absent if you would be in financial hardship otherwise.
Suspending study
If you take time out from your course (sometimes known as deferring or suspending study) you will need to tell your course administrator and also let Student Finance England know about your plans.
Usually if you stop attending your course your student funding will stop and the next instalments of your student loan will not be paid. Student Finance England will recalculate your entitlement to grants and loans, and let you know if you are entitled to more or whether you will need to repay anything.
If you are suspending for health reasons then support can continue to be paid for 60 days while you are away from your course.
If you have taken time out and you are not getting your loan and will suffer financial hardship as a result, then you can ask Student Finance England to extend your funding. In deciding whether to do this they will take into account the reasons for your absence, how long you expect to be absent and the financial hardship which not paying support would cause. You can phone them on 0300 100 0607 and ask for a ‘financial hardship confirmation’ form.
While you are taking time out, if you are still registered as a full-time student, you would not usually be able to claim Universal Credit.
You can only get Universal Credit as a full-time student if you get PIP and have limited capability for work, or you are a single parent, or a student couple with a child. If you have a partner, then your partner may be able to claim.
Or, if you have taken time out because you are ill or caring for someone, and now you have recovered from illness or finished caring for someone, and you are waiting to get back on to your course, then you could get Universal Credit.
If you are thinking about taking time out from your course, then speak to a student money adviser about how this could affect your finances.
Transferring
If you are planning to transfer courses this can affect your student funding in some circumstances.
Where you are transferring on to a course of the same length, same mode of study (full-time or part-time) and into the same or following year, then your student funding will not usually be affected by the transfer. If this is the case, you can log on to your Student Finance England account and let Student Finance know about these changes online. In the meantime, the Student Funding team within our university will complete a ‘change of circumstances’ form and send this to Student Finance England to confirm these changes.
If you are transferring and starting a new course in an earlier year, for example you transfer from the third year of one course into the first year of a new course, or if you are transferring from a full-time course to a part-time course or vice versa, then your funding could be affected.
If you are suspending study before transferring please see the section on this page about suspending study.
Speak to a student money adviser if you are unsure about how your funding will be affected by a transfer.
Withdrawing
If you are leaving or are thinking of leaving your course, then you need to consider how this will affect your finances, both now and in the future.
Your current and future student funding can be affected. You will also need to consider how to meet any ongoing financial commitments and also whether you have entitlement to welfare benefits once you stop studying.
When you withdraw, as well as telling our university, you should let Student Finance England know. They will reassess what loans you are still entitled to for the year.
When a student withdraws, Student Finance England will cancel the next instalment of loan.
If you have withdrawn part of the way through a term, you may be told that you have been overpaid maintenance loan for that term and be asked by Student Finance England to pay back the difference.
You can make an arrangement with Student Finance England to pay the overpayment in instalments that you can afford. If you return to university then the overpayment may be deducted from your student funding for your new course.
If you withdraw from your course after the two-week ‘cooling-off’ period, then you may still be liable for fees for the time you have spent on the course.
If you have applied for a tuition fee loan it will pay 25% of your fees if you withdraw in the first term after the cooling off period, a further 25% if you withdraw in the second term and the remaining 50% if you are still attending in the final term.
If you are not getting a tuition fee loan then your fees are worked out according to how many weeks you have attended university.
For our fee policy in detail, and the terms fee liability dates please have a look at our General Regulations.
If you have withdrawn from one course and plan to start a new course, then check how many years’ entitlement to the tuition fee loan you have left. You can usually only get the fee loan for the length of a new course, plus one year, minus the number of years you spent on your previous course.
You can continue to get the maintenance loan for a new course, unless you already have a qualification at the same or higher level.
Grants for Dependants and Disabled Students’ Allowances are not affected by previous study.
If you are leaving your accommodation because you have withdrawn from your course you need to check if you will still owe money – do you have to pay for the full year of your tenancy agreement or do you still have any outstanding bills, like gas or electricity, Wi-Fi or water?
If moving out will leave you with outstanding debts, then you may want to seek advice about your liability and / or how to deal with the debt or negotiate repayment.
If you are leaving Leeds Beckett university halls, then have a look at the information on the Accommodation website about moving out.
When you leave your course you may become liable to pay Council Tax. You may be able to claim a Council Tax Reduction if you are living on a low income, and / or a single person discount if you are the only liable person in the household.
One you have withdrawn from your course, and if you are on a low income, you may be able to claim Universal Credit for help with living and housing costs.
You can find a specialist welfare benefits adviser near you at Community Legal Advice.
The ‘previous study’ rules
If you are thinking about withdrawing, transferring or repeating part of your course, then you need to be aware of the previous study rules because they could affect the funding you could get for future study.
If you already have a qualification, which is the same or higher than the one you are studying for, then you usually cannot get any student loans. You could still get Grants for Dependants and Disabled Students’ Allowances though.
There are some exceptions too, for example, pre-registration healthcare courses like Nursing, Dietetics, Physiotherapy, Speech and Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy are not affected by the previous study rules.
If you are studying on a course for a qualification which is equivalent to, or lower than, a qualification you already hold then with a few exceptions you cannot get the tuition fee loan or maintenance loan for your current course.
In general, if you have studied before on a:
- part-time course and achieved a higher education qualification, or
- publicly funded full-time higher education course, even where you did not achieve a qualification and even if the study was outside the UK
then the number of years you spent on the previous course are taken into account to limit the number of years of tuition fee loan and maintenance / special support grant you can get for your current course.
Students are usually entitled to the tuition fee loan for the length of their course, plus one year (in case, for example, they need to repeat a year), less any years of previous study.
An exception is made where students have withdrawn from their most recent course or are repeating a year because of ‘compelling personal reasons’ (see section below).
If you are concerned that you may be affected by the previous study rules, speak to a student money adviser.
Compelling personal reasons
Sometimes students have to withdraw from a course or will need to repeat a year because of strong personal reasons. Student Finance England call these ‘compelling personal reasons’ (CPR). They could include, for example: illness, or a personal or family crisis.
Where Student Finance England consider that a student is repeating study or has failed to complete their most recent previous course because of CPR, they can award an extra year of tuition fee loan.
This is in addition to the extra year that everybody has as part of their ‘standard entitlement’ and is awarded in the first year of the new course or for the year the student is repeating.
It is important, if you are repeating a year or withdrawing from a course, to let your university and Student Finance England know about any personal reasons for your decision. This could help when you apply for funding in the future.
If you think that you have compelling personal reasons for withdrawing from a previous course or repeating a year, then speak to a student money adviser to get help and advice.
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