Lawyer Destroyer

Short answer Generally no, not automatically. Whether a university can charge you a full year’s fee when you are only repeating one module, or only studying for part of a year, depends on your enrolment status and mode of study, what the university’s fee regulations and your contract actually say, and whether those terms are … Read more

Overview of how these loans work Postgraduate Master’s Loans and Postgraduate Doctoral Loans from Student Finance England are contributions towards the cost of study rather than payments tied to attendance for a fixed period. The loan is a single fixed maximum amount for the whole course, which is divided into instalments and spread across the … Read more

A promised scholarship or bursary that is paid late, short, or not at all is usually treated as a contractual and consumer matter between you and the university, with a specialist complaints route on top through the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA). What you can do depends on the nature of … Read more

Short answer Yes, in most cases the university can require you to pay your tuition fees on the schedule set out in its own tuition fee regulations and your student contract, regardless of when your Postgraduate Master’s Loan or Postgraduate Doctoral Loan instalments actually reach you. The key point that catches many postgraduates out is … Read more

Short answer In almost all cases in England and Wales, yes. If your employer, a government body, an embassy, a scholarship body or another third party agrees to pay your tuition fees but then fails to do so, you will normally remain personally liable to the university for the outstanding fees. The reason is that … Read more

First check whether the cap actually applies to your course The tuition-fee cap does not apply to every student or every institution. It is worth confirming this before treating the charge as unlawful, because there are several situations where a higher fee is lawful rather than a breach. The statutory fee limits set under the … Read more

What has actually happened If both you and Student Finance England (SFE) have paid the same tuition for the same year, the university has received more than your total fee liability for that period. In practical terms your student account is now in credit by the amount of the duplication. This is an overpayment, and … Read more

How the travel grant works The travel grant for students from England studying or on placement abroad is administered by Student Finance England (SFE), part of the Student Loans Company (SLC). It is a means-tested grant that helps with reasonable travel costs, and it does not have to be repaid. It is available if your … Read more

Yes. A decision refusing the Adult Dependants’ Grant (ADG) or calculating it at what you believe is the wrong amount is a decision about your entitlement to student finance, and Student Finance England (SFE) operates a formal appeals process for exactly this kind of dispute. There are also earlier and cheaper routes that are often … Read more

Yes. A refusal of Parents’ Learning Allowance (PLA), or a calculation you think is wrong, can be challenged, but the right route depends on whether the problem is a factual error in the assessment or a decision you say breaches the student support regulations. What Parents’ Learning Allowance is and how it is decided PLA … Read more

Short answer Yes, in principle Student Finance England (SFE), acting for the Secretary of State, can require you to repay an overpaid grant or allowance even where the overpayment was caused by its own administrative error. There is no general rule in the student support system that an official-error overpayment is automatically written off. However, … Read more

Overview Yes, you can usually challenge both a refusal of hardship-fund support and an unreasonable delay in emergency financial help, but the route depends on the type of fund and on the university’s own rules. Most hardship funds are discretionary rather than a legal entitlement, so a challenge normally focuses on whether the university followed … Read more

Overview Yes, in principle you can challenge a university’s refusal of a scholarship or bursary where you believe the published eligibility criteria were applied incorrectly. A misapplication of a provider’s own published rules is one of the clearest and most reviewable types of complaint, because it does not require anyone to second-guess an academic judgement. … Read more

Short answer Yes. If your student support includes a Special Support element, whether it is paid as a Special Support Grant or as part of a Special Support Loan, that element should be disregarded when your Universal Credit award is calculated. It is not treated as student income and should not reduce your monthly Universal … Read more

How Universal Credit treats student income Universal Credit does not count all of your student finance. The rules are set out in regulations 68 to 71 of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013, and DWP applies them mechanically, which is exactly why the arithmetic sometimes goes wrong. The main points are: Only maintenance funding counts. A … Read more

Short answer Yes, in many situations Universal Credit can and will treat a student maintenance loan as income even though you never applied for it and never received a penny. The rule looks at the maintenance loan you were entitled to apply for, not only at money that actually reached your bank account. However, this … Read more

The short answer Yes, in principle you can challenge it, but there is an important threshold point to understand first: the capped Social Work Bursary (SWB) place is allocated by your university, not by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA). The NHSBSA administers the bursary but has confirmed it has no input into the allocation … Read more

Overview of how the scheme works The Social Work Bursary (SWB) in England is administered by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. It is a discretionary, non-statutory scheme governed by published scheme rules and a fixed annual budget rather than by an individual legal entitlement … Read more

How teacher-training bursaries and scholarships work Understanding the mechanics of the payment matters, because who is responsible for paying you determines who you complain to and what remedy is realistic. Initial teacher training (ITT) bursaries in England are funded by the Department for Education (DfE), but they are paid to you by your ITT provider … Read more